Phishing is one of the most prevalent forms of cyberattack used by bad threat actors to either steal personal data, or to gain entrance into a business’ network. These surreptitious and malicious email messages trick unsuspecting recipients into clicking a link or opening an attachment that contains malware, ransomware, or in the case of Business Email Compromise (BEC), employs impersonation...

Sometimes when sending phishing simulations to our clients, we setup a reply-to address to see if people will reply to suspicious emails and many do. Many people interpret our simulations as scams and articulate that in colorful language. Others provide information that would be dangerous in the hands of a threat actor, such as contact information for the appropriate employee for us to connect...

In 2022, geopolitical unrest and an expanding online attack surface contributed to the emergence of several themes across the cyber landscape. Infrastructures associated with opposing ideologies were highly targeted, with government agencies, supply chains, and IOT devices falling victim to high-profile campaigns. Cybercriminals launched increasingly advanced attacks on vulnerable entities, with...

In Q3, nearly 80% of threat actors opted to compromise existing websites or abuse free tools when staging phishing sites, according to the latest data from Fortra’s PhishLabs. While Compromised Sites represented the lion’s share of staging activity, URL Shorteners, Free Domain Registrations, and Developer Tools all experienced increased abuse in Q3 and pointed to sustained criminal interest in no...

Hybrid vishing attacks have increased 500% year-over-year as cybercriminals find success using these techniques to steal sensitive information. Listen as Agari’s John Wilson discusses the latest research from Agari and PhishLabs by Fortra. Click here to listen to the podcast. if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {};window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://phishlabs...

In Q2, four out of five phishing sites were staged using infrastructure that required no investment on the part of threat actors, including Compromised Sites and Free Tools and Services, according to the Agari & PhishLabs Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. Although the volume of Paid Domain Registrations associated with phishing sites grew slightly, threat actors continue to choose no...

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, 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...

Courtesy of Digital Guardian by Fortra Attackers continue to find clever new ways to disguise phishing emails. Here are 10 different ways you can identify a phishing email. While large-scale ransomware and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks may be taking up up the bulk of people’s cybersecurity news feeds, organizations have more to worry about than the newest and most sophisticated...

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,...

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...

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...

In this guest blog, Dr Ed Amoroso, CEO, Tag Cyber, provides a high-level overview of the Fortra cybersecurity portfolio value proposition based on a mapping of its component solution offerings to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) phases. Forty years ago, an engineer in Minnesota decided that computer costs for the IBM System/38 were getting too high. So, he began investigating and building...

Phishing site volume increased 28% over the course of 2021, according to PhishLabs Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. Attacks last year displayed increasingly volatile behavior on a month-to-month basis, often intermixed with a variety of attack vectors. Despite a lack of congruency, phishing unequivocally remains the most dominant attack method targeting organizations. Every quarter,...

Phishing attacks targeting consumers during 2021 have increased nearly 32% from 2020, according to PhishLabs’ Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. While trends have been erratic, multiple spikes in activity continue to make phishing the most dominant attack method on the threat landscape. Threat actors are experimenting with a variety of tactics to target enterprises with these attacks,...

Vishing attacks targeting corporate users have more than doubled for the second consecutive quarter, according to PhishLabs’ Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. Response-Based attacks such as these are increasingly targeting corporate users and stand alongside email-based Credential Theft and Malware attacks to make up the top attack vector targeting enterprises. Every quarter,...

Ransomware continues to grow as a thriving underground economy with limited risk and little barrier to entry. Ransomware attacks are supported by a robust ecosystem of dark web services, where many of the tasks needed to carry out an attack can be outsourced. These tasks are increasingly available and sold by threat actors who specialize in them. In this post, we take a look at Initial Access...

Financial institutions have experienced a 15.3% increase in share in phishing attacks, according to PhishLabs’ Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. This increase establishes financial services as the top targeted industry and shows threat actors continue to place high value on compromised banking credentials. In this post, we take a look at the tools and infrastructure used by threat...