Phishing for business

More on today's impromptu topic of pernicious practices and laws to combat them. TechRepublic's John McCormick writes that phishing--using e-mail and online tricks to get people to turn over their personal information--affects business, too. He says:

"Some scams are beginning to target business credit information; companies are often a better target because they have more money. Businesses are accustomed to paying an invoice when they get it without doing much research. In fact, this is an old scam: mail out a bunch of invoices using a professional-sounding name, and many companies will just send a check. This means that even seemingly harmless information about billing cycles and sample invoices can pose a threat."

He also complains that California's antiphishing law, passed September 30, is too narrowly defined.

Meanwhile, here's a story about business losses due to phishing and other attacks.