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The Science Behind the Scenes: How Machine Learning Combats Phishing Attacks and BEC

Because email remains the most ubiquitous form of business communication, it continues to be a favorite attack vector for cybercriminals. Email has always been vulnerable because it was not originally designed with security or privacy in mind. As a result, email security vendors emerged to protect this critical communication channel. In the early days, many vendors used signature or reputation...
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Holiday Season Triggers Rise in Counterfeit Activity

Criminals are capitalizing on the urgency behind gift-giving celebrations such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and Hanukkah. Counterfeit activity has grown more than 50% from September through November, with a 27% increase over the course of November alone, according to Fortra’s PhishLabs. These threats are impersonating brands on social media and the open web to target consumers with...

How to Mitigate Online Counterfeit Threats

How to Mitigate Online Counterfeit Threats phishlabs_admin Thu, 01/11/2024 - 15:06
The broad scope of counterfeit campaigns and unclear boundaries of abuse make it challenging to successfully mitigate online threats targeting retail brands. There is a fine line between infringement and fair use of publicly made materials, as well as immeasurable online environments where counterfeit campaigns may live and grow. Additionally, bad actors are continuously modifying attack...

How to Collect Intelligence on Threats Targeting Retail Brands

How to Collect Intelligence on Threats Targeting Retail Brands phishlabs_admin Thu, 01/11/2024 - 15:06
Retail brands are increasingly targeted with fraudulent advertisements, fake social accounts, and falsely branded websites. These multipronged counterfeit campaigns redirect sales and compromise consumer data using brand recognition, the same component critical to driving sales within the retail industry. The massive expansion of ecommerce and online consumer-to-retail interaction creates a...
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COVID-19 Phishing Update: BEC Lures use Pandemic to Enhance Attacks

Threat actors are using the novel coronavirus to add credibility in recent Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks. Below are three examples of how they are doing it. We are providing ongoing updates on coronavirus-themed attacks observed by the PhishLabs team. This post and others are meant to help the security community stay up-to-date on how threat actors are exploiting the pandemic. In the...
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WannaCry, NotPetya and the Rest: How Ransomware Evolved in 2017

Ransomware . The word strikes fear into the hearts of hospital administrators, local government officers, and small business owners everywhere. After exploding in 2016, ransomware has been covered extensively by media outlets and security experts, to the point where most organizations have started to take at least some action to mitigate their exposure. But have these efforts had any impact? And...