According to Cybersecurity Ventures, cybercrime would be the world’s third-largest economy (after the U.S. and China) if measured as a country as its damages may total $9.5 trillion globally in 2024. While this may be a surprising stat, it should reiterate the importance of your cybersecurity plan and solutions. External threats play a large part in digital threat landscape, and like the name...

Of the three forms of threat intelligence (strategic, operational, and tactical), tactical threat intelligence is the most directly actionable. Tactical threat intelligence also enables defenders to engage in threat hunting or root cause analysis activities when examining historical (attempted) intrusions. This is useful in detecting breaches that may have occurred, understanding the cause of a previous breach, and understanding whether a particular adversary or TTP is being attempted against your organization.

Cyberattack anatomies are a detailed outline of various attack methodologies, techniques, and tactics. This blog post will outline the anatomy of a recent smishing campaign identified by Fortra’s threat researchers. The Smishing Attack The smishing text contains a banking alert about a transaction being put on hold and urges the reader to visit the...

Active Phishing Campaigns are coordinated attacks that Fortra has observed bypassing email security gateways and filtering tools. The following analysis includes examples, high-level details, and associated threat indicators. Sample Email Lure Sender VerificationSender’s Email: ogawa@kidscorp[.]jp Sender’s Name: Beth KolcunReply-To Address: beth...

One of the most used phishing-as-a-service platforms, LabHost, has been taken down by an international group of law enforcement authorities coordinated by Europol. Fortra has closely monitored LabHost and has mitigated tens of thousands of phishing attacks carried out by cybercriminals using the platform in recent years.

Browser fingerprinting is one of many tactics phishing site authors use to evade security checks and lengthen the lifespan of malicious campaigns. While browser fingerprinting has been used by legitimate organizations to uniquely identify web browsers for nearly 15 years, it is now commonly exploited by cybercriminals. Today, it is considered widely used for phishing purposes.

In Q4, three malware families represented more than 93% of all payload volume targeting end users, with Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) DarkLoader leading all other reports. Fortra first received reports of DarkLoader in user inboxes in Q3, with attack volume picking up significantly beginning in October. The shift to criminal activity associated with DarkLoader comes after coordinated efforts by...

Fortra is monitoring malicious activity targeting Canadian banks conducted by Phishing-as-a-Service group LabHost. Throughout 2022 and 2023, Fortra has observed phishing attacks connected with Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS) groups grow as threat actors use the tools provided through membership services to launch a variety of campaigns. The providers of these platforms boast features such as access...

Historically, the average brand is targeted by 40 look-alike domains per month. Look-alikes are a strategic component of malicious lures and websites and used in a variety of spaces including social platforms, text messages, the open web, and email. An attack that incorporates a look-alike domain can mean the difference between a convincing campaign and a suspicious one, with a versatility that...

Is your organisation ready to tackle the new challenge of QR code phishing, also known as quishing? In this TechNewsWorld article, Dr. Steve Jeffery discusses the latest carrier of choice for payloads via email.

Executive impersonation on social media is at an all-time high as threat actors take advantage of AI to improve and scale their attacks. In Q3, accounts pretending to belong to high-ranking executives on social media climbed to more than 54% of total impersonation volume, surpassing brand attacks for the first time since Fortra began tracking this data. The volume and composition of these attacks...

Criminals are constantly innovating ways to enhance deliverability and increase the success of their campaigns. Email phishing remains one of the most significant threats to organizations, but a growing number of campaigns are first touching victims via non-traditional lures or through engagement on platforms where users are more susceptible to scams. Understanding how online threats are evolving...

In this Tripwire guest blog, we break down how to best communicate the significance of a cybersecurity investment. Despite increasing data breaches, ransomware attacks, and assorted cyber threats, convincing the Board of Directors to invest in robust cybersecurity isn't always easy for many businesses. The challenge originates mainly from the need to demonstrate a quantifiable Return On...

How will the digital risk and email security landscape evolve in 2024? In this VM Blog article, Eric George discusses the industry’s future and shares his seven predictions for 2024. Originally published in VM Blog. Excerpt: “AI and ML will enhance capabilities on both sides of the cyber landscape – for good and bad. On the defensive side, those protecting the targets will use advanced data...