The single most active group for stealing identities and pilfering electronic bank accounts over the Internet has nearly ground to a halt, but the lull could be the precursor to an even worse crime spree, according to a new study.

Attacks by the group known as Avalanche plummeted from 26,411 last October to just 59 last month, the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) in its "Global Phishing Survey: Trends and Domain Name Use 2H2009".

Are you ready for these Internet security threats?But a similar shutdown of a group known as Rock Phish that was active between 2006 and the summer of 2008 was followed quickly by Avalanche, which was even more effective, APWG says. Avalanche first appeared in December of 2008.

More: http://pcworld.com/article/196304/