Internet use is still growing fast, but so is Internet-based fraud, according to security vendor VeriSign Inc., which examined data from its own infrastructure services between August 2002 and August 2003.

According to VeriSign's study "Internet Security Intelligence Briefing," released yesterday, 6.2% of e-commerce transactions carried out in the U.S. were attempts at fraud. More than half the fraud attempts were made by entities outside the U.S., VeriSign said.

Also, the number of security incidents almost doubled between May and August this year, VeriSign said.

Standard security attacks and fraud are closely linked, the company said. "Analysis ... showed extremely high correlation (47%) between sources of fraud and sources of security attacks," the study said. "Attackers who gain control of Internet host machines are using these compromised hosts for both security attacks and fraudulent e-commerce transactions."

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