Over three billion fake emails sent out daily
At least 3.4 billion fake emails are sent around the world every day, according to a new report from email verification company Valimail, with the majority of suspicious emails coming from US-based sources.
The report shows that email impersonation -- accounting for 1.2 percent of all email sent in the first quarter of 2019 -- is a phishing attacker's primary weapon to gain access into an organization's network, systems, intellectual property and other sensitive assets.
Phishing attacks grow in sophistication to evade defenses
Despite businesses investing in next-gen technologies, phishing threats continue to become more sophisticated and effective according to a new report.
The study from intelligent phishing defense company Cofense shows how threat actors, armed with an ever-growing arsenal of tactics and techniques, continue to tweak their campaigns and enhance their capacity to deliver malware, ultimately getting more messages past perimeter controls to user inboxes.
61 percent of organizations are worried about email-borne threats
Email is still the main vehicle for cybercriminals to deliver threats according to a new report, and 61 percent of IT decision makers think their organization will suffer a negative impact from an email-borne attack this year.
The study from email and data security company Mimecast shows that impersonation attacks have increased 67 percent in comparison to the results in last year's report.
Email threats become more focused and malware gets harder to detect
Spam emails containing malware significantly dropped in 2018, to just six percent, down from 26 percent in 2017. But at the same time malware is becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect.
These are among the findings of the latest Global Security Report from Trustwave. The largest single category of malware encountered is downloaders at 13 percent.
Microsoft email hack was worse than first thought -- some users' messages were accessed
Over the weekend we reported that hackers gained access to Microsoft's web-based email services for a period of three months. Microsoft tried to calm users' concerns by saying that only "your e-mail address, folder names, the subject lines of e-mails, and the names of other e-mail addresses you communicate with" had been accessed. But for some people, things were rather worse.
It transpires that some users have been sent a notification from Microsoft informing them that hackers were able to access the content of emails.
Microsoft reveals hackers gained access to its web email services for three months
Microsoft has confirmed that hackers were able to access customers' web-based email accounts for a period of three months at the beginning of the year. Between January 1 and March 28, unknown hackers hit the accounts of various Microsoft email services.
The company is in the process of sending notifications to those who have been affected by the issue and it recommends users change their account passwords. (Update: it's worse than first thought!)
Email app Spark arrives on Android ready to replace Google Inbox
Google may be shutting down its Inbox app later this week, but there are alternatives out there. In fact, the number of options available to Android users just increased.
Spark -- which has proved very popular with iOS and macOS users -- has just migrated to Android, bringing with it all manner of inbox organizing smarts. Developer Readdle says it will, "make you love email again".
90 percent of tech companies are vulnerable to email spoofing
Phishing is a major problem for large organizations, but while there are standards to authenticate email and prevent phishers from spoofing domains with fake emails, a majority of companies have not made full use of them.
The tech sector has moved faster than some but while they are beginning to implement protection many companies in this sector are still at an early stage with the result that 90 percent are still vulnerable to impersonation.
Google Inbox is closing down in two weeks
Google is far from being a stranger to launching and shuttering apps and services willy-nilly, and the latest victim is Inbox.
We have actually known for a little while that Google Inbox was due to close down -- it was just a matter of when. Now Google has revealed the closure date, and it is just two weeks away: April 2. We wave goodbye to Inbox on the same day as Google+.
Microsoft Word bug can be used to bypass security systems
Researchers at email and data security company Mimecast have uncovered a bug in Microsoft Word that can be used to bypass security systems.
The bug incorrectly handles integer overflows and can be used to circumvent security systems and fool parsers to deliver remote code that can take complete control over a compromised machine.
VFEmail hack wipes out all of the email provider's US servers
Email provider VFEmail has been hit by a huge attack that resulted in all of the data it stores in the US being wiped out.
Describing the attack as "catastrophic", VFEmail revealed that a hacker had breached its security and succeeded in deleted not only primary data systems, but also the backups. The attacker was caught in the act, and it was possible to intervene before damage was caused to servers in other countries. But for VFEmail users whose data was stored in the US, the news is far from good.
Phishing gets more personal and harder to detect
An analysis of phishing attacks in the final quarter of 2018 reveals the majority of attacks showed an increase in target personalization, making them considerably more difficult to detect.
The study by email protection start up INKY shows 12 percent of phishing attacks in the period took the form of corporate VIP impersonations, 10 percent were sender forgery and six percent were via corporate email spoofing.
Gmail gets a new right-click menu
It is not news that Gmail has a right-click menu; what is news, however, is the fact that it has been updated so it is now actually useful.
Google has gradually been updating Gmail over the years, and the refreshed context menu provides easy access to more message options. For control freaks, the new menu is a godsend and makes the web-based email tool more like using a desktop email client.
Over 90 percent of organizations hit by targeted email attacks
Over the past year, business email compromise (BEC) scams have jumped by 60 percent. In addition more than 90 percent of organizations report being hit by targeted email attacks, with 23 percent suffering financial damage as a result.
These findings come from the Q1 2019 Email Fraud and Identity Deception Trends report by secure email specialist Agari.
Email: Year in review 2018
2018 is has come to a close. Many experts are making predictions for 2019, but I think it’s important to learn from the past. Let’s take a look back at all of the major email industry events of 2018.
There were plenty of changes amongst mailbox providers that kept marketers and deliverability professionals busy. Providers like Gmail and Oath (AOL, Yahoo and Verizon mail) went through significant changes this year, including:
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