A new report by IBM is showing a steady decline in email phishing attacks. In 2008, phishing attacks made up 0.5 percent of all spam but so far this year that number has dropped to 0.1 percent. At the same time the number of malicious links found on the net has shot up an alarming 508 percent, and experts say that’s no coincidence.

        Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, told SCMagazineUS.com on Thursday that she is not surprised by IBM’s findings. As a trend, cybercriminals are switching from phishing to more “surreptitious” malware attacks, she said. One reason for this shift is that email filtering mechanisms have been fairly successful at stopping the proliferation of phishing attacks.

Another big reason is that cybercriminals are simply finding that malware is an easier and more profitable way to do business. All they have to do is plant a malicious link or whip up a rogue Facebook app and get people to click on it. Once that happens the malware is downloaded onto their computers and does the work of stealing personal info and financial details for them.

That’s not to say phishing is dead. You can expect attacks to rise again once the holidays arrive. Greeting card spam/phishing will likely rise as Christmas and Valentine’s Day approach, and if anything especially newsworthy, say a celebrity scandal or natural disaster should occur you can expect a similar rise in attacks. Phishers love to exploit such events for their personal gain.

To reduce the risk of a malware attack, keep your browser and OS updated and make sure to install any patches or hotfixes made available for apps such as Adobe Reader and Acrobat. Hackers are always looking for vulnerabilities to exploit.