Resources

Phishing 101: Targeted Phishing Attacks
Blog

Phishing 101: Targeted Phishing Attacks

Wed, 09/05/2018
The most likely way that you will be compromised online is through a simple phish or a socially engineered attack. Today, these two techniques are often combined to create an even more threatening attack, an intelligently targeted phish. Thanks to the wealth of information that we all leave behind us as we use the Internet, it is easier than ever for a social engineer to learn our name,...
How To Change Security Behaviors: Information Security
Blog

How To Change Security Behaviors: Information Security

Thu, 06/28/2018
Let's be honest, employees make mistakes. And sometimes those mistakes have catastrophic consequences. Everybody has heard stories about people accidentally leaving an unencrypted work laptop on the train, or on the seat of their car. Heck, on a busy day we could even imagine ourselves doing it. But with industry regulators finally starting to find their teeth — and the GDPR is now in full...
6 Steps to Quickly Defang Reported Phishing Emails
Blog

6 Steps to Quickly Defang Reported Phishing Emails

Thu, 05/03/2018
So here it is… the first one you've received. Everything has been building up to this. You spent days preparing the business case, weeks designing the training program… and it's finally paid off. The first user-reported phishing email has hit your inbox. Now… what should you do with it? Time is of the Essence Reported phishing emails are good for a lot of reasons. For starters, they can...
Blog

How To Make Reporting a Phish So Easy Even Your Busiest Execs Will Do It

Tue, 02/13/2018
Frustrating, isn't it? You design a powerful anti-phishing program, secure funding from your executive board, provide world-class training. You do everything right… Oh, your users are probably spotting phishing emails. After all, they've engaged with the training, and seem to be taking it seriously. But no matter how many times you remind them, they just won't report those phishing emails. ...
The 11 Types of Reported Emails
Blog

The 11 Types of Reported Emails

Thu, 01/18/2018
You receive an email, you are unfamiliar with the sender's name or email address, and they are offering you a new service or deal on something. Is it malicious? Not necessarily. Perhaps you forgot about signing up for a newsletter a while back. Malicious Versus Benign According to Symantec, 55.5 percent of business emails are considered spam emails, with the average business account getting...
A Quarter of Phishing Attacks are Now Hosted on HTTPS Domains: Why?
Blog

A Quarter of Phishing Attacks are Now Hosted on HTTPS Domains: Why?

Tue, 12/05/2017
The push for more widespread adoption of HTTPS has been in full-force this year as a way to increase the number of websites that securely transmit information on the Internet. In January, both Chrome and Firefox browsers began alerting users whenever sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card information, was entered on a non-HTTPS web page. In October, Google took this a step...
Holiday Phishing Scams Target Job Seekers
Blog

Holiday Phishing Scams Target Job Seekers

Tue, 11/21/2017
'Tis the season for shopping, time spent with friends and family, and preparations to celebrate the holidays. As most of us plan for the coming season, cyber criminals are looking for opportunities to catch victims off guard and steal valuable personal information. People looking to supplement their gift-giving budget with a seasonal holiday job should take a close look at job listings before...
The Impact of Phishing, and Why it Should be Your #1 Priority
Blog

The Impact of Phishing, and Why it Should be Your #1 Priority

Wed, 10/04/2017
Nation states. Hacktivists. Cyber criminals. There are so many players in the modern threat landscape it can be hard to keep up. And the number of threats? Practically too many to count. By the time you’ve secured your organization against password reuse, DDoS, and crimeware attacks, your resources are likely so diminished there’s no point even thinking about what else could be out there. ...
The Mobile Phishing Threat You'll See Very Soon: URL Padding
Blog

The Mobile Phishing Threat You'll See Very Soon: URL Padding

Thu, 06/15/2017
The fact that hackers are increasingly targeting mobile devices isn’t exactly a secret. And really, it’s not surprising either. After all, most of us are practically glued to our smartphones throughout the day. An SMS arrived? Better read it straight away. New email? Let me at it. Somebody I don’t care about updated their Facebook status? Great, let’s see what they’re up to. The...
How to Use URL Pattern Analysis for Phishing Detection Mitigation
Blog

How to Use URL Pattern Analysis for Phishing Detection Mitigation

Fri, 05/05/2017
When you’re attempting to mitigate the risk of phishing, threat intelligence plays a vital role. After all, what better way to predict and intercept future phishing attacks than by analyzing past attacks for patterns and indicators? This post is the second in a series breaking down lessons learned from our recent consumer-focused phishing webinar. In the first post we covered the value of...
The Phishing Email that Fooled Thousands of Trained Users
Blog

The Phishing Email that Fooled Thousands of Trained Users

Thu, 03/09/2017
It’s a sobering moment. You work long and hard to prepare your users. You train them. You test them. And over time, you see amazing results. But then it happens. Just when you think your users are becoming rockstars at identifying phishing emails, threat actors throw a new tactic at you… and everybody falls for it. Of course, this isn’t a new story. Threat actors constantly update their...
Phishing with Wildcard DNS Attacks and Pharming
Blog

Phishing with Wildcard DNS Attacks and Pharming

By Jessica Ryan on Fri, 03/03/2017
The cyclical relationship between threat actors and security professionals begins with the creation of a new attack technique, followed by the discovery of that technique by the security community, and then a refashioning of the manner of attack or creation of another novel approach by threat actors. Phishers are always seeking better ways to entice victims into providing their personal and...
Security Awareness Training: A Recipe for Success
Blog

Security Awareness Training: A Recipe for Success

Wed, 01/04/2017
In recent months we’ve written a lot about security awareness and phishing awareness training. It’s an involved topic, clearly, and if you’ve taken away anything we hope it will be this: If you want real, measurable improvements you must test your employees. And when it comes to email security, that means phishing your employees on a regular basis. In this post, we’ll take a deep dive into a...
How and Why You Should Calculate Your Organization's Cost of Phishing
Blog

How and Why You Should Calculate Your Organization's Cost of Phishing

Tue, 11/15/2016
Everybody knows phishing is costly to their organization. But how costly? Few organizations know for sure. Plenty of studies have claimed to calculate the cost of phishing, but the results are usually hard to swallow. For instance, does phishing cost your organization $1.6 million per incident? Or $3.7 million per year? Perhaps... but probably not. The issue with these figures is that they're...
Why Some Phishing Emails Will Always Get Through Your Spam Filter
Blog

Why Some Phishing Emails Will Always Get Through Your Spam Filter

By Jessica Ryan on Thu, 09/15/2016
Frustrating, isn’t it? It seems like no matter what you do, a few phishing emails always find their way into your users’inboxes. You’ve tweaked your spam filter, and you’re scanning every attachment… But nothing seems to work. Is it you? Are you making some glaring mistake? Probably not. We've discussed before why your users keep falling for phishing scams, and there's more to it. The...
Why Your Users Keep Falling for Phishing Scams
Blog

Why Your Users Keep Falling for Phishing Scams

Wed, 09/07/2016
We’ve all been there. That awful moment, when you realize it’s happened again. “Why do they never learn?” You ask yourself. “It really isn’t that hard!” Time and time again, your users click on malicious links and attachments in phishing emails, and it seems like no matter what you do to improve their awareness, it never gets any better. So why do they keep falling for phishing scams? Is it...
Building a Business Case for Effective Security Awareness Training
Blog

Building a Business Case for Effective Security Awareness Training

Fri, 03/18/2016
Security education programs are sometimes mandated, always important, and often difficult to justify the investment. It is easy to get the powers that be to sign off on a once-per-year security awareness training program that will satisfy compliance requirements, but we all know by now that compliance does not equal security. The Information Security Forum (ISF) has defined information...
Phishing Takedown Anti-Phishing Phishing Protection
Blog

Phishing Takedown Anti-Phishing Phishing Protection

Tue, 04/08/2014
Phishing is a prevalent problem for businesses, particularly financial institutions. Over the years, many services have emerged to help organizations address phishing attacks that are targeting their customers' accounts. When seeking solutions, businesses find they have several options to choose from. These fall into three categories: Phishing takedown services Anti-phishing services ...