Security experts at RSA are warning that do-it-yourself man-in-the-middle phishing kits - which automatically create sophisticated phishing sites that circumvent two-factor authentication protection - are being sold by fraudsters on the Internet.
The vendor says its analysts researched and analysed a demo of the kit that was being offered as a free trial on an online forum.
The so-called "universal phishing kit" allows fraudsters to configure attacks for any target Web site without the need for customisation. RSA says once fraudsters acquire and operate this kit, an attack can be configured to "import" pages from any target Web site.
The kit creates a bogus URL that communicates with both the end user and a legitimate company Web site. Spam e-mail is used to dupe customers into entering account data at the fake site, which harvests account details and multi-factor authentication information. This data is then autmatically forward to the legitimate site to access accounts. Any data submitted to the site after the victim has logged into their account can also be stolen.
Marc Gaffan, director of marketing, consumer solutions at RSA, says: "As institutions put additional online security measures in place, inevitably the fraudsters are looking at new ways of duping innocent victims and stealing their information and assets.
"While these types of attacks are still considered 'next generation,' we expect them to become more widespread over the course of the next 12-18 months."
Last year Citibank business customers were targeted by a man-in-the-middle phishing attack. The bogus site used in this scam was found to be operating out of Russia and was shut down.