In Q2, Response-Based emails targeting corporate users reached the highest volume since 2020, according to the Agari and PhishLabs Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. Malicious and potentially damaging emails targeting corporate inboxes have climbed to a three-quarter high, and include Response-Based scams, Credential Theft, and Malware. Every quarter, Agari and PhishLabs analyze...

In Q2, malicious attacks targeting organizations on social media have increased more than 20% over Q1, according to the latest Agari and PhishLabs’ Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. Agari and PhishLabs analyze hundreds of thousands of phishing and social media attacks every quarter to identify the top threats targeting enterprises, their brands, and their employees. In this post, we...

In Q2, Response-Based attacks targeting corporate inboxes climbed to their highest volume since 2020, according to the latest Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report from Agari and PhishLabs. Response-Based threats such as Advanced-Fee Fraud, Business Email Compromise (BEC), and hybrid Vishing attacks all demonstrated increased volume in Q2, with Vishing specifically growing 625% over the...

Cyber attacks targeting retail brands have increased dramatically over the last year. Since Q3 2021, retail has experienced a nearly 500% increase in attacks on social media alone. Counterfeit websites and look-alike domains are also among the top threats to online retailers. Attackers incorporate stolen designs and trademarks to stand up counterfeit sites, outbid legitimate businesses with...

Courtesy of Expert Insights Billy Smith is the Managing Director at PhishLabs by Fortra. With a wealth of experience in the IT and cybersecurity industry, Smith is an expert in using curated threat intelligence to take down cyberthreats. In his role at PhishLabs, Smith enables organizations to proactively identify and remediate threats across their digital channels, including email, social media,...

Emotet contributed to just over 47% of all attacks targeting corporate users in Q2, narrowly surpassing former leader QBot. This is the first quarter Emotet has represented the majority of payload reports since its disruption in January 2021. Together, Emotet and QBot dominated payload volume, totaling more than 90% of reported payload activity. Malicious payloads distributed via phishing emails...

Courtesy of Agari by Fortra. What is Email Spoofing? Email spoofing is one of the most common forms of cybercriminal activity, specifically a form of identity deception that’s widely used in phishing and spam attacks. It underpins the mechanism required to conduct hacking activities, and it can take many forms. Unfortunately, most email users will eventually receive an email that has been...

It’s not news that cybercrime is a constant battle—large enterprises and small businesses everywhere are susceptible to a myriad of advanced email threats and socially engineered attacks, such as executive or brand impersonation. According to IC3’s Internet Crime Report, over $44 million in losses in 2021 were a direct result of malicious phishing and advanced email scams. Despite billions having...

The financial services cybersecurity environment is extremely complex, with a dizzying number of often-overlapping regulations, ongoing threats, and understaffed teams trying to manage it all. Despite paying significant attention to security, many organizations continue to be the targets of advanced persistent threats, fraud, sophisticated phishing campaigns, and other bold efforts to access the...

In Q1, the exchange of sensitive data on Carding Marketplaces and Forums increased as government seizure of multiple Dark Web sites prompted a shift in where actors conduct illegal activities, according to the Agari and PhishLabs Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. These sites specialize in the trafficking of stolen credentials and data such as usernames, passwords, banking, and...

In Q1, more than 51% of phishing sites abused paid services, according to the Agari and PhishLabs Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. This is the first time in five consecutive quarters where the majority of phishing sites were staged using Paid Domain Registrations or Compromised Sites. Phishing volume as a whole continues to increase in 2022 in comparison to the same time period last...

Vishing reports in Q1 2022 increased nearly 550% over Q1 2021, according to Agari and PhishLabs’ Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. While these Response-Based attacks have recently displayed stunning numbers, malicious emails as a whole are growing steadily, and represent the top online attack vector targeting corporate users. Malicious emails are delivered primarily in the form of...

Social media attacks targeting enterprises have increased 105% from Q1 2021 to Q1 2022, according to Agari and PhishLabs’ latest Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. Social media threat volume has consistently climbed quarter over quarter, as threat actors increasingly use social platforms to target business via fake pages, messaging, and advertisements. Every quarter, Agari and...

Impersonations of brands and executives on social media have grown more than 300% and 250% year-over-year, respectively, according to the Agari and PhishLabs Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. This highlights the overall increase in social media activity and ease of accessibility for bad actors to repurpose stolen trademarks and intellectual property (IP) for a variety of malicious...

Vishing attacks have increased almost 550 percent over the last twelve months, according to Agari and PhishLabs’ Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. The May report uses hundreds of thousands of phishing and social media threats analyzed and mitigated by Agari and PhishLabs, both of which are part of the Fortra cybersecurity portfolio. By identifying and mitigating attacks targeting...

PhishLabs has identified a Browser-in-the-Browser (BitB) campaign targeting financial institutions with a fake Office 365 (O365) authorization protocol. The attack is delivered via phishing email and redirects the victim to a website impersonating an O365 single sign-on (SSO) page. A BitB attack is a novel phishing technique that replicates pop-up windows used for SSO in an effort to steal login...

Qbot payloads targeting enterprises contributed to almost three quarters of all email-based malware since the beginning of 2022. Although reported malware activity among families continues to fluctuate dramatically from quarter to quarter, QBot reports in Q1 represent the highest volume of a single malware variety over the past 12 months. Phishing lures delivering payloads remain the primary...

Social media offers an important outline for people of all ages and walks of life to connect, share life experiences and post pictures of their breakfast. But oversharing - or not being wary of impostors - can lead to serious compromises in personal and professional security. In a press release on the report's findings, Phishlabs “enterprises must broaden their line of defense [in 2022,]...

Courtesy of Agari by Fortra. You probably already know this, but it bears repeating: Email by itself is NOT secure; anyone can use someone else’s identity to send emails. In fact, email is the #1 way cyberattackers can target your customers and your email ecosystem. No brand is untouchable when it comes to attackers using or spoofing email domains to send spam, phishing attempts, malware, or...

Social Media attacks targeting enterprises increased 103% in 2021, according to PhishLabs Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. Social Media is rapidly becoming the threat channel of choice for criminals. The rapid expansion of consumer/business relationships through social platforms, coupled with less refined and controllable online security measures, makes social media a prime target...