The names of popular social networking sites are increasingly being used in phishing attacks, according to an annual Brandjacking report issued by MarkMonitor Inc. 

Phishing attacks in 2009 using social network brands totaled 11,240, surging 376% from 2008. MarkMonitor, which sells brand abuse protection services, said that although the number of organizations being used in phishing attacks for the first time decreased in 2009, phishing attacks reached a new record high last year, increasing 62% from 2008, averaging about 600 phishing attacks per organization.

The San Francisco-based company monitors 30 major brand names and conducts a weekly sampling to look for scams that abuse their names in a variety of methods. The research involves searching through millions public domain records and spam messages over the course of the year.

In addition to abusing the brand names of social networks, attackers are also using the frameworks of social network platforms to spread unwanted links to spam and malicious content. The number of phishing attacks on social networking sites represented 2% of all phishing attacks in 2009, but MarkMonitor noted a sharp increase in attacks at the end of the year, from about 2,000 phishing