Whaling: A Sophisticated Cyber Threat Targeting High-Profile Individuals
Whaling, a type of phishing attack, targets high-profile individuals within an organization, such as CEOs, CFOs, and other executives. These individuals are often referred to as “whales” due to their high-value status and the potential for significant financial gain or data breaches if compromised.
How does whaling differ from traditional phishing attacks?
While traditional phishing attacks cast a wide net, sending out generic emails to a large number of recipients, whaling attacks are highly targeted and meticulously crafted. Cybercriminals conduct extensive research on their victims, gathering information about their personal and professional lives to create highly convincing and personalized messages.
Key Characteristics of Whaling Attacks:
- Highly Personalized: Whaling emails are tailored to the specific recipient, often referencing their role, recent projects, or personal information.
- Urgent Tone: Whaling attacks often create a sense of urgency, urging the victim to take immediate action, such as transferring funds or sharing sensitive information.
- Spoofed Identities: Cybercriminals may spoof the email addresses of trusted individuals or organizations to increase credibility.
- Sophisticated Social Engineering Techniques: Whaling attacks employ sophisticated social engineering tactics to manipulate victims into compromising their security.
Example of a Whaling Attack
A cybercriminal might impersonate a company’s CEO and send an urgent email to the CFO, requesting an immediate wire transfer. The email could be crafted to appear legitimate, using the CEO’s email address and signature. If the CFO falls for the deception, they could unknowingly transfer a large sum of money to the attacker’s account.
Protecting Yourself and Your Organization
To protect against whaling attacks, organizations should implement robust security measures, including employee awareness training, strong password policies, multi-factor authentication, and email filtering solutions. Additionally, executives should be particularly cautious when receiving unexpected requests, especially those that involve financial transactions or sensitive information.
Protect your Microsoft 365 environment with ExchangeDefender security solutions. Try ExchangeDefender PRO for free today!
Phishing 101: The Most Common Scams
Have you ever been hooked by a phishing email? It’s like those annoying telemarketers calling your landline, but way more dangerous. Instead of trying to sell you a vacation package, scammers are trying to steal your identity, your money, or both.
Let’s reel in some of the most common phishing scams
- Spear Phishing: Scammers use personal information to make their emails seem legit. They might know your name, job, or even your favorite vacation spot.
- Whaling: This is the big game of phishing. Think of it as hunting down CEOs and other high-profile targets. Scammers use sophisticated techniques to trick these folks into giving up sensitive information
- Smishing: This is like getting a text message from a friend asking for a favor. But instead of needing a ride, they want your bank account details.
- Vishing: This is the phone call version of phishing. Scammers will call you pretending to be from a bank or government agency, trying to trick you into giving up your personal information.
- Clone Phishing: This is like a scammer impersonating your friend or coworker. They’ll send you an email that looks almost identical to one you’ve received before, hoping you’ll fall for the trick.
But don’t worry, you’re not a helpless target. Here are some tips to avoid falling victim to phishing scams:
- Be cautious of unfamiliar emails. If you receive an email from someone you don’t know or a suspicious subject line, be extra careful.
- Verify the sender’s address. Look for typos or suspicious email addresses.
- Avoid clicking on suspicious links. If you’re unsure about a link, hover over it to see the actual URL
. - Never share personal information. Scammers will try to trick you into divulging your passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive data.
- Keep your software updated. Ensure your operating system and antivirus software are always up-to-date.
Remember, staying safe online requires vigilance, knowledge, and a bit of caution. So the next time you receive a suspicious email, don’t let scammers trick you!
Tired of dealing with phishing scams? ExchangeDefender’s advanced phishing protection can help keep your inbox clean and your data safe. Ask us for a free trial!
Spoofing vs. Phishing: Understanding the Differences
In today’s digital world, online security is more important than ever. Two common threats that can compromise your personal information and security are spoofing and phishing. While these terms may sound similar, they represent distinct types of cyberattacks. In this blog post, we’ll explore the differences between spoofing and phishing, how they work, and how you can protect yourself from falling victim to these scams.
Spoofing: It’s Not Who You Say You Are
Spoofing is like someone pretending to be someone else online. For example, a scammer might send you an email that looks like it’s from your bank, but it’s actually from them. They’re trying to trick you into thinking they’re someone you trust.
Phishing: A Fishing Expedition for Your Information
Phishing is a bit like a fishing expedition, but instead of catching fish, scammers are trying to catch your personal information. They might send you an email or text message that looks like it’s from a legitimate company, asking you to click on a link or download an attachment. If you do, you might end up giving away your personal information, like your passwords or credit card numbers.
The Key Differences
- While both spoofing and phishing involve deception, there are some key differences between them:
- Intent: Spoofing is often used to gain unauthorized access or launch other attacks, while phishing is primarily used to steal personal information.
- Techniques: Spoofing involves technical methods to disguise the sender’s identity, while phishing often relies on social engineering techniques to manipulate victims.
- Impact: Spoofing can have a variety of consequences, while phishing attacks are primarily used to steal personal information.
How to Protect Yourself
- Be skeptical. If you get an unexpected email, text, or phone call, be suspicious. Don’t click on links or open attachments unless you’re sure they’re from who they say they’re from.
- Check for typos and grammar mistakes. Scammers often make mistakes in their emails or texts.
- Never give out personal information. Don’t share your passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information with anyone unless you’re absolutely sure they’re who they say they are.
By being aware of the difference between spoofing and phishing, and by following these tips, you can help protect yourself from becoming a victim of these scams.
Looking for Spoofing AND Phishing protection that’s affordable? Go for ExchangeDefender PRO!
AI Fights Back: 3 Ways Artificial Intelligence Protects You From Cyberattacks
Cybersecurity threats seem to be everywhere these days, from phishing scams in your inbox to malware lurking in the downloads you click. But what if there was a way to fight fire with fire, using artificial intelligence (AI) to outsmart cybercriminals? Believe it or not, AI is becoming a powerful tool in the cybersecurity arsenal. Here are 3 ways AI is working to keep you safe online:
1. Training Champions: Simulating the Bad Guys
Think about a world where cybersecurity professionals could practice their skills against realistic cyberattacks, that look real enough to fool anyone. Well, that world exists thanks to AI! Generative AI can create convincing simulations of cyber threats, allowing security experts to hone their detection and response skills in a safe, controlled environment. The more they practice against these “fake” attacks, the better equipped they’ll be to stop the real ones that come your way.
2. Phishing Emails? No Problem! AI Spots the Fakes
Phishing emails are a classic trick used by cybercriminals to steal your personal information. But AI is making it harder for these emails to slip through the cracks. AI can be trained to identify the subtle clues in a fake email, like unusual phrasing or suspicious sender addresses. By constantly analyzing emails and learning from new phishing attempts, AI helps keep your inbox safe from these deceptive messages.
3. Digital Neighborhood Watch for Unusual Activity
Imagine your computer network as a bustling neighborhood. Normally, things follow a predictable pattern – emails flow in and out, websites are accessed, and data travels along its usual routes. But what if a stranger showed up, acting strangely? AI can monitor your network traffic and learn what “normal” activity looks like. Then, if something unusual happens, like a sudden surge in data or a suspicious connection attempt, AI can raise the alarm. By constantly watching for anomalies, AI helps identify potential cyberattacks before they can cause any damage.
As AI continues to evolve, it will likely play an even greater role in keeping us safe online. So next time you see an article about a cyber threat, remember that there’s a whole team of AI warriors working behind the scenes to keep you protected!
ExchangeDefender URL Rewriting Tips
No matter how much money you waste on cyber training, someone, somewhere, innocently or intentionally, will eventually click on a link that can take your network down.
ExchangeDefender protects you from malware and phishing threats by rewriting web traffic through our security service called ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall. The process is very simple, we analyze the email message as it goes through ExchangeDefender and rewrite the URLs so that when you click on them on your Outlook or phone you’re redirected to a site that your organization manages and that you can customize for your personal liking.
Remember, over 91% of cybercrime starts with a link in an email! ExchangeDefender helps stop that.
We also roll up OSINT and public reputation lists that give you an idea exactly what you are being directed to. We check if the site is known for spreading malware, if there is a recent incident report, if the site is brand new – and you can quickly decide to click on a button to proceed one time or you can add it to your safe list and then you’ll automatically get redirected to the real site.
Problems and Challenges
URL rewriting is an industry standard practice and almost all large mail service providers feature similar “safe links” technology.
As helpful as it is in disarming dangerous content, it can at times cause a support issue as well when the link gets broken or when the site gets wrongly listed for hosting dangerous content (hint: we don’t host anything, we just redirect the link). The process of delisting can take some time and sometimes misconfigured devices and services can cause additional problems. Just last week we dealt with an issue at Comcast/AT&T xFinity Business SecureEdge service and the only workaround is to turn that service off.
Workarounds and Quick Fixes
The quickest way to work around this is to ask the sender to email you at your bypass email address you create for this interaction. Simply go to https://bypass.exchangedefender.com and follow the directions from there.
Optionally, but as the last recourse only you can turn off the ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall (see https://www.exchangedefender.com/docs/domain for instructions) but doing so also lowers the level of protection and support you’ll be getting from ExchangeDefender.
We have a week of client/partner development focus groups, March 6th-7th and if you’re interested please ping us at events@exchangedefender.com. What we’re currently beta testing are provider or domain redirection portals so that you’re not stuck sharing r.xdref.com or d.xdref.com with millions of your closest email neighbors. This way any problems with the site listings or DNS hijacking (in SecureEdge’s case) would be limited to your clients and it would be easier to pick out and mitigate any malicious reporting activity.
If you’re looking to make ExchangeDefender work better for you, please join us for the focus group. We’d love to help you protect your clients mail flow better.
What is Phishing? (a simple explanation)
According to recent reports from the FBI, Phishing has become the most common form of cyber attack in 2020 and 2021. Phishing is a method that hackers use to steal your sensitive information like usernames or passwords. It is most often used for identity theft, where cybercriminals send a phishing campaign (via email) to gain access to your bank accounts, personal information, and more.
The goal of a Phishing attack is to: gain credentials like bank pin numbers, usernames and passwords, gain personal data like your name, home address, and email, and also medical PHI information like treatment information and insurance claims.
Where does Phishing happen?
Approximately 96% of phishing attacks are delivered by email. In 2020, it was estimated that 1 in every 4,200 emails was a phishing email according to a Symantec report. To put the numbers in perspective, for ever 1 second of internet activity, 3.4 million emails are sent.
There are also fake websites, social media accounts, and phone calls that are used by criminals to try to steal lucrative information. Beware of these websites, always check for the lock sign in your URL, and make sure that the spelling is correct.
What does Phishing look like?
Inside of a Phishing email you’ll find a malicious link, that (when clicked) will transfer you to a fake website that will request your credentials in the form of “logging in”. Most phishing emails, when you look at the subject lines, you’ll find that the following keywords are present, like:
- Urgent
- Request
- Important
- Payment
- Attention
The email would appear to be from a brand that you trust, like Amazon, Microsoft, or Facebook. The email “from” address is not actually from the brand, but rather faked to appear like it is.
What happens when a Phishing attack has been successful?
2020 Phishing statistics show that about 90% of users cannot identify a sophisticated phishing email. It’s not because we’re dumb, its because the attacks are executed so well. It is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to secure their data because office workers are human, and humans make mistakes. After a successful phishing attack, about 60% of organizations lose their data, 50% are infected with ransomware and get their credentials or accounts stolen.
Need Phishing protection for your business? Keep your company and data safe with ExchangeDefender PRO!
Interested in learning more about Phishing protection, click here.
ExchangeDefender CEO talks email-borne threats with Cybernews
Recently, Cybernews reached out to ExchangeDefender CEO, Vlad Mazek to learn more about how we keep businesses safe from cyber-attacks using top of the line security solutions. The informative discussion centers around the topic of cybersecurity, and what that means for the modern business.
With the recent rise in phishing attacks, it is smart to double-check if it’s really your coworker that emailed you.
By now, it’s probably hard to find an Internet user who has never received emails from someone claiming to be a long-lost relative who wants to share their fortune. While the majority of us are familiar with this type of malware, phishing attacks shouldn’t be underestimated. Nowadays, when threat actors start to include more personal details, posing as coworkers or even bosses, staying vigilant is key.
To discuss the topic of cybersecurity and phishing prevention, we reached out to Vlad Mazek, the CEO of ExchangeDefender, a company eliminating email threats before they even reach your inbox.
ExchangeDefender has been providing various security solutions for more than 2 decades. What was your journey like throughout the years?
We originally started ExchangeDefender to improve the reliability of our Microsoft Exchange servers by offloading all the security tools to a more scalable infrastructure. Over the years we’ve expanded our security portfolio to protect other email servers, as well as deliver more secure ways to rely on common office tasks such as file sharing, collaboration, and compliance.
Can you tell us a little bit about what you do? What are the main problems you help solve?
We used to say “We kill SPAM for a living” and to this day we simply eliminate common threats that lead to security compromises and service outages by providing email encryption, long-term archiving & eDiscovery.
We make it easier to rely on email for secure and reliable communication; which we do by keeping potentially dangerous content away from your webmail, mailbox, desktop, or phone. Simply put, we make it easy to get things done more securely.
What technologies do you use to detect and stop threats in their tracks?
We primarily rely on our internal early warning system which tracks unusual activity from known threat actors. Because of our size and client base, we often have the luxury of being among the first to be targeted which helps us identify safe and unsafe developments before they go “viral”.
We also participate in many proprietary, open-source, and data/intel sharing projects that help raise the security profile of everyone involved.
How did the pandemic affect the cybersecurity landscape? Were there any new features added to your services?
Pandemic actually improved the security landscape for our clients because they suddenly had to shift to a remote work model which inherently came with more stringent security requirements and more awareness for security policies and secure collaboration.
We noticed a significant shift from traditional office communication methods to SMS/TXT and we moved quickly to make all of our services SMS-aware. Mobile phones have become a security identification token, a mobile presence device, and far too often a failover computer. That’s why we invested heavily in extending our services to meet our clients’ needs to go beyond just sending email messages.
What sectors (for example, financial, healthcare, etc.) do you think should put extra attention towards email security?
The best way to answer this question is to think like a hacker because for them it’s not personal, it’s business.
Organizations get compromised for one of two reasons:
- They have assets (data) that are valuable
- They have a reputation that is valuable
If you have a lot of valuable data or a trustworthy relationship with your clients, you’re a valuable target regardless of your industry. It would be difficult to hack a financial institution because they have dedicated IT and security teams, go through routine audits, and can respond to threats quickly. Compare that to a small CPA firm that uses standard tools and an antivirus bundle that came with their PC.
When it comes to cyber threats carried out via email, what are the most common ones?
Email is the most popular way to get cyber threats into an organization, according to a recent study over 90% of security compromises started with email and it has not changed significantly in the past few years: the #1 cyber threat is from spear phishing. Spear phishing is a practice of forging the identity of the sender and the look of the email to something the recipient would find trustworthy enough to click on. What has changed significantly is the end goal of spear phishing:
- Deployment of RAT (Remote Access Trojan) software
- Theft of PII (personally identifiable information)
- Theft of security credentials
This list actually flipped in the last two years mostly due to the sophistication of RAT software that can give an attacker access to the entire network instead of just a single PC or cloud account. The latest variants target UEFI bios which keep the threat in place even after you get rid of the infected hard drives. As these threats evolve, they also highlight other security issues on the network which makes them difficult to remove and require constant monitoring.
With so many teams working remotely nowadays, what are the best practices when it comes to secure file sharing?
The single most important recent advancement in overall IT security that really deserves wider adoption is the use of MFA/2FA/OTP: multi-factor authentication that requires secondary verification before accessing any sensitive system or information. Working remotely, outside of a managed network and access to IT staff, creates a new universe of security threats that should be mitigated by:
- Deploying & requiring MFA for access
- Deploying a more aggressive backup and imaging solution
- Controlling and reducing the attack surface (by limiting access only to required web sites & services)
Besides secure collaboration solutions, what other security measures do you think modern companies should invest in?
You are probably already spending too much on overlapping, redundant, and underutilized security solutions.
The best security investment you can make today is to get an audit of your existing security portfolio and its integration. Being secure doesn’t come simply from paying for a security software/service license – it has to be properly integrated, configured, and monitored in order to truly keep users away from dangerous content. Due to the chronic lack of security focus and the habit of deprioritizing security for the sake of end-user comfort, many organizations find themselves in a perilous situation with cyber insurance demands.
We are seeing organizations getting compromised not because they don’t have security solutions or adequate training but because they don’t take the time to properly and fully implement the security solutions they are already paying for. An overwhelming majority of ExchangeDefender subscribers rely on less than 30% of the security features they already pay for.
Can you give us a sneak peek into some of your future plans for ExchangeDefender?
Our biggest technical investment for 2022/2023 is to make it possible to access external content (email attachments, files, messages, sites & services) in a secure online sandbox environment where dangerous content wouldn’t even have a chance to reach the user’s desktop, phone, or network.
Our biggest investment is in the area of security audits and assessments. While there is always a shiny new tool or service that promises better security, our data indicates that it’s rarely the lack of a tool, and more often the lack of proper deployment and management of sensitive information that leads to a security compromise.
We’ve helped countless businesses that have been compromised over the years and it usually comes down to neglect of security processes combined with a lack of a plan to respond and recover from a hack. Our future plans are to help organizations change that scenario because cybersecurity isn’t something you buy, it’s something you do.
To celebrate the launch of our new small business service plans, we are currently offering 30-day free trials for any service. Interested in ExchangeDefender? Please visit www.exchangedefender.com/business to request your free trial today!
ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall Support (CSO)
Ever since we committed to ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall as a core feature in ExchangeDefender, we knew that the biggest user benefit will be a trusted cyber-security expert available as a part of the solution. ExchangeDefender redirects all links that pass through ExchangeDefender through our firewall, giving users that click on a suspicious link in their email more information about the suspicious site – for example, if you clicked on a link in an email from Bank of America and are actually going to a web site in Poland, it might be an issue. But who do you turn to when there is an issue?
ExchangeDefender Chief Security Officer is just a click away and so far we’ve handled over a thousand inquiries from our clients and partners. If you’re looking at a link and you cannot tell why we intercepted and flagged the content, just click on the yellow button and fill out a form.
Within 24 hours you’re guaranteed a response from our team. The turnaround average so far has been just 18 minutes!
What happens on the back-end is actually quite hands-on: first we investigate the original email and compare the context with the link target, location, etc. We then open the link in a sandbox (safe environment without additional network connectivity and no data) to see what sort of information the web site collects and attempts to send. We then rephrase it in a non-techie user-friendly way and help the client out.
We’ve been overwhelmed with both skepticism and compliments as a result – turns out most users do not expect a response and are pleasantly surprised when an actual human emails back with useful information. We’ve gotten compliments on our turnaround time, usefulness of information, saving the user from dangerous content, as well as thankful comments about the frustration that phishing in general creates – as we’ve been fine tuning xdref.com our users are seeing it less and less and when they do see it we are happy to help.
The overall value of the service cannot be overstated – we’ve saved our CIOs, partners, MSPs, IT guys and gals hundreds of hours in investigative work alone. We got our clients a security audit that allowed them to continue to work quickly. Not to mention about all the bad links that likely would have lead to a breach or security compromise – that the users and techs never had to deal with.
P.S. Included in ExchangeDefender Pro at no additional cost. If you’re still frustrating your clients with “training” programs/videos/whitepapers that SPAM filters catch and junk anyhow – stop wasting your clients time and money – ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall is a better, more effective, more affordable solution.
ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall (EPF): Scary Truth behind Phishing
ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall has been a huge success in it’s initial roll out and I wanted to take a moment to bring you up to speed on our progress and our end goal: to eliminate phishing and spear phishing as a threat to our clients. I do not intend to mince words here, this is the #1 threat out there – 90% of all compromises and breeches start with a phishing email. Stopping it, as an email security company, is our #1 job and I’m happy to report that initial results are stunning.
Little bit of a rewind: Until now the most popular way to fight phishing and spear phishing was through “education” – there is an entire cottage industry of supposed “phishing education”, testing, refreshers – and it all revolves around training people to hover over links in Outlook, what not to click, what to read. It will not surprise you that such “training” is practically worthless, but they say that a picture is worth a thousand words so here is our phishing book:
In the 48 hours following 4th of July weekend in United States, dangerous links in the email were clicked on over 770,000 times.
Without ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall, these links would have redirected our clients to dangerous sites that likely would have lead to a compromise or a security breach. So much for training.
What’s even more telling is that, even with our firewall in place, 164,000 people decided to proceed to a dangerous site anyhow.
If more than 1 out of 5 clicks in your email will take you somewhere dangerous, how well is your training performing?
With ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall we are enabling companies to setup policies, restrict access, provide intelligence as the user clicks — and we provide logging giving you an idea who attempted to trash your organizations network.
The scary truth behind phishing is that training is only useful in blatantly apparent cases – the kind that will NEVER even get to your inbox. Our SPAM filtering detects dangerous email content and filters it out before it has a chance to get to your Inbox. The stuff that we can flag as dangerous – thanks to user reporting, audits, and look-ahead scanning is far more sophisticated than anything we could pack into a SPAM filter – and it gives your users real intelligence on what they are about to click on. You cannot expect users to remember all their training and to be a web security analyst – their job is acting on the email.
Our job, is making sure the emails get to them clean and free of dangerous malware. Once they click on the links in the email – we are going one step ahead – and leveraging our industry relationships (data feeds and infosec sharing of dangerous content) to make sure you know exactly what you’re clicking on.
Phishing is immensely profitable and far more effective than any other form of hacking – the user literally clicks and gives the hacker the keys to the network – and our ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall helps remove the danger and reduces phishing to merely an annoyance.
The numbers speak for themselves.
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek
CEO
ExchangeDefender
ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall – Report Issue
ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall continues to impress in terms of performance and user engagement – it’s catching dangerous content and keeping users safe from phishing attacks that often result in security compromises and breaches. Phishing accounts for over 90% of IT compromises, and as we’ve written before more than 1 out of 5 links our clients click on have lead them somewhere dangerous. With those numbers it’s clear to see why hackers are relying on phishing as the first and most effective form of attack – people will click on anything!!! And as intrusive as EPF seems to some (thank you for your feedback), our development team has been working overtime since the launch to make ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall out of the way when it should be, and in your face when something dangerous shows up.
The goal of ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall is to keep you safe from potentially dangerous sites and out of the way the rest of the time. You can keep up with our Dev fixes over at https://www.anythingdown.com and keep sending us your feedback. We love to hear it and we love improving the service so it can help keep you and your business safe. We also like to hear what you want us to add to the service that would make it more valuable. One such piece of feedback helped build a “Report Issue” feature:
If you click on something that you don’t recognize and you can’t tell what it is – DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK – we are here for you. Our security concierge will open the link in an isolated virtual environment and see what kind of data is being sent back-and-forth. You will get a response, generally within minutes, with either a thumbs up or thumbs down. How cool is that?
Keep the suggestions coming, we love making ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall the key part of your defense from phishing.