RSA in its new research observed that there were an unprecedented 275 brands that phishers targeted during December 2009.

The reason for this rise is advancement in modern cyber tactics along with the growth in sophistication and personalized nature of their phishing attacks, according to the company.

For instance - numerous phishing e-mails now directly copy the format and style of an authentic correspondence from an online retailer, bank or a well established company. This is quite different from earlier phishing e-mails whose design made the attack very obvious. Thus, it isn't astonishing that consumers are becoming easy victims of modern e-mail scams.

Nevertheless, it seems that the numerical rise in phishing assaults is falling. In spite of a 17% increase in phishing attacks over 2008-09, there were 15,596 attacks during December 2009, accounting for only a 3% rise since November 2009.

According to the report, in spite of increased awareness, the number of Internet surfers victimized by a phishing assault has been rising. The reason for this is the extremely low awareness rate about newer attacks among online users. One of such newer attacks is spear phishing. This type of attack is also called 'whaling,' which usually targets executives or high-profile individuals who handle sensitive corporate data.

RSA's new report further reveals that the USA continues to be the biggest haven for phishing attacks as well as the most prominent victim. In fact, the UK too is close, being the third greatest nation for receiving phishing attacks.

Finally, the findings of RSA that there is an upsurge in targeted attacks matches with the findings of security company Network Box. Network Box reveals in its latest report released during the end-week of January 2010 that more than 50% of the total malicious programs distributed through e-mail in the month were related to phishing attacks.