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When it comes to threat detection and response, statistics from 2022 and into 2023 emphasize the growing challenge organizations—and the cybersecurity industry—have in terms of “people-proofing” attack vectors. Cybercriminals capitalize on stolen credentials, privilege misuse, and human error, and they apply well-orchestrated social engineering tactics on their victims.
93% of successful cyberattacks start with a phishing email.
Indeed, business email compromise (BEC) and pretexting has doubled in just one year. Adversaries are adept at using a fabricated story, or pretext, to gain a victim’s trust and trick them into sharing sensitive information, downloading malware, sending money, or otherwise harming the organization they work for.
The Evolving Email Threat Landscape
Against the backdrop of increasing cybersecurity threats, there’s a pressing need for more robust security measures to combat threats like ransomware, business email compromise (BEC), and social engineering:
1. The Changing Landscape and Sophisticated Attacks: Cyber attackers continue to grow more sophisticated, leading to a surge in ransomware attacks. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a staggering 600% increase in ransomware incidents, as hackers exploited the vulnerabilities of remote work environments. Their primary objectives include encrypting systems, exfiltrating data, and demanding ransoms. However, the threat landscape has evolved beyond ransomware to include advanced threats like BEC attacks. And in the past year, a doubling of advanced pretexting attacks. With such dynamic adversaries, there is no “business as usual”– highlighting the urgent need for improved security solutions.
2. Business Email Compromise (BEC): BEC attacks involve compromising a mailbox and covertly monitoring incoming and outgoing emails. In these scenarios, attackers carefully observe conversations and interactions without the victim’s knowledge. For instance, they might intercept an email from a vendor requesting payment for completed work. The attacker then sends a follow-up email, posing as the vendor, requesting a change in bank account details. If the victim falls for this deception and transfers funds to the fraudulent account, they suffer significant financial losses with little recourse for recovery. These attacks prey on “good human nature” making it difficult for traditional gateway solutions to identify and prevent them effectively.
3. Social Engineering Exploitation: Ransomware and phishing attacks thrive on social engineering tactics, taking advantage of individuals who are busy, inattentive, or unaware of the subtle details. Spear phishing, impersonation, BEC attacks and pretexting rely on exploiting human vulnerabilities rather than solely technical weaknesses. Traditional gateway solutions struggle to effectively address these types of threats as they often lack the ability to analyze intent, sentiment, or the changing behavior patterns of email senders.
4. Limitations of Gateway Solutions: Traditional gateway-based solutions, while serving their purpose in the past, are inadequate in the face of sophisticated techniques employed by attackers.
Why Traditional Gateway-Based Email Solutions Fall Short
Simply put, gateway-based solutions don’t cover all the email-borne threats out there today. Basically, gateways are filters. They block malicious emails before they get to the inbox, but they only protect against three types of attacks: spam, malware, and data exfiltration. They’re not protecting against business email compromise, account takeovers, and adversary-in-the-middle attacks.
Gateway-based solutions rely on predefined rules and signatures, similar to outdated antivirus software. As a result, they struggle to detect and block advanced persistent threats (APTs) and malware specifically designed to evade detection. A notable example is the two-step phishing attack, where a reputable site is used to create a landing page, fooling gateway solutions into permitting access. Deeper analysis is required to identify the malicious intent of subsequent login prompts, which gateway solutions often miss.
The Need for Advanced Email Phishing Protection
While gateway solutions are essential, they are not comprehensive protection against sophisticated threats like ransomware, business email compromise (BEC), and social engineering tactics. Limitations in their adaptability, inability to detect advanced threats, and failure to address social engineering exploitation highlight the need for enhanced email security measures.
What’s more, traditional gateway solutions rely on policy-based approaches, which often break, don’t scale, and are hard to maintain.
DataEndure: Advanced Protection for Advanced Threats
Safeguarding your business requires advanced protection. DataEndure’s Advanced Phishing Protection (APP) goes beyond the gateway to provide comprehensive coverage against evolving email-borne threats. Our solution applies Inbox Threat Analysis (ITA), leveraging user behavior analysis to identify discrepancies and anomalies in user identity, behavior, sentiment, location, and application usage.
Staying informed and proactive in the face of evolving cyber threats is key to maintaining robust security. DataEndure serves as a trusted managed security partner to organizations with users across 23 countries and 4 continents. Contact us today to learn how we can help you secure your users, devices, and environment—from anywhere, anytime.