Most AI detectors can't tell if a phishing email was written by a bot
The latest Phishing Threat Trends Report from Egress, based on data from its Egress Defend email security tool, reveals that nearly three-quarters of AI detectors can't tell if a phishing email has been written by a chatbot.
Because they utilize large language models (LLMs), the accuracy of most detector tools increases with longer sample sizes, often requiring a minimum of 250 characters to work. With 44.9 percent of phishing emails not meeting the 250-character limit, and a further 26.5 percent falling below 500, currently AI detectors either won't work reliably or won't work at all on 71.4 percent of attacks.
Senior managers are more likely to click on phishing emails
Senior executives are 60 percent more likely to click on malicious links than their employees, making them a vulnerable target for hackers, according to a new report.
However, data from SoSafe also reveals that senior managers are more likely to report a suspicious email (20 percent) than employees (eight percent) are, which shows that security awareness among top management is rising.
Data theft overtakes ransomware as IT pro's biggest worry
Of over 200 IT security decision makers surveyed, data theft is cited as the biggest concern by 55 percent, followed by phishing (35 percent) with ransomware taking third place on 29 percent.
The study from Integrity360 shows that in terms of actual incidents phishing is the most common (46 percent), with data theft second on 27 percent. Ransomware, at only 15 percent, is ranked among the least common incidents being seen by businesses.
How phishing scams have changed and how to protect against them [Q&A]
Cyberattacks and data breaches come it many forms, but often at the root of them is a phishing scam.
Exploiting the fact that humans are the weakest link in the security chain, cybercriminals use phishing to trick employees into giving up credentials or other sensitive information that can be used to gain a foothold to carry out a later attack.
Beware! Google AMP's use in phishing campaigns is on the rise
Security researchers at Cofense have noticed a rise in phishing campaigns that use Google's AMP technology to gain trust and evade detection.
Google describes AMP as a "web component framework to easily create user-first experiences for the web". Broken down to its core, AMP is designed to improve the performance of webpages, mostly on mobile, by limiting elements on these pages.
Training makes critical infrastructure employees better at spotting phishing attacks
New research from security behavior change specialist Hoxhunt shows that 66 percent of active participants in security behavior training programs at critical infrastructure organizations detect and report at least one real malicious email attack within a year.
The report -- based on analysis of over 15 million phishing simulations and real email attacks reported in 2022 by 1.6 million people participating in security behavior change programs -- shows the effectiveness of training in making staff more engaged in organizational security.
Facebook and Microsoft are the most popular phishing bait
A new report reveals the most impersonated brands in phishing attacks for the first half of 2023, with Facebook taking the top slot, followed by Microsoft.
The report from email security company Vade, shows Facebook accounted for 18 percent of all phishing URLs and Microsoft for 15 percent. Taken together these two accounted for more unique phishing URLs than the next top five brands combined (Crédit Agricole, SoftBank, Orange, PayPal and Apple).
Disrupting the phishing killchain with new defenses [Q&A]
Recent reports have shown that email is still the channel where enterprises are most vulnerable to attacks, in particular phishing.
But adding new browser-based layers of security protection can disrupt such killchains, for example by preventing phishing victims from accessing or engaging with spoofed sites. We spoke to Red Access co-founder and CTO Tal Dery to find out more.
Cybercriminals use AI to make malware less detectable
Cybercriminals are using AI-created malware that is adept at avoiding detection by traditional antivirus models, according to the latest report from Acronis.
The report also finds email attacks and ransomware cases have exploded relative to last year. Acronis-monitored endpoints are picking up valuable data about how cybercriminals operate and how some attacks have become more intelligent, sophisticated, and difficult to detect.
Three of the world's most expensive phishing attacks... and how they could have been prevented
A number of high-profile cyber-attacks in recent years have thrust cybersecurity back into the spotlight. In light of the HAFNIUM hack, cybersecurity has become a major focus for many businesses. Although the hack itself was not the result of human error, it was a wake-up call for organizations to make sure they were fully protected.
The UK's Department for DCMS’ Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2021 revealed that phishing is still the most common cause of cybersecurity breaches, accounting for 83 percent of all successful attacks.
Attackers exploit the growing use of mobile devices
The growth in mobile device and app usage has created a growing attack surface, with 60 percent of global web traffic now coming from mobile devices. So it's not surprising that increasing numbers of cybercriminals and nation state actors want to exploit these areas of vulnerability.
The latest Global Mobile Threat Report from Zimperium finds that 80 percent of phishing sites now either specifically target mobile devices or are built to function on both mobile devices and desktops.
Cost of living crisis raises cyber risk from unhappy staff
A new survey of UK small and medium enterprises shows that 47 percent believe they are at greater risk of a cyberattack since the cost-of-living crisis.
The study from CyberSmart reveals that 38 percent believe this is due to increased malicious insider threats such as disgruntled employees making decisions that are not in the best interest of the company. While 35 percent believe it is due to negligent insider threats such as overworked or distracted employees making mistakes.
Why organizations shouldn't pay ransomware demands [Q&A]
Many organizations around the world are opting to pay ransoms to cybercriminals in order to buy back ownership of their data. But this can leave them open to further risk of attack.
Gerasim Hovhannisyan, CEO and co-founder of EasyDMARC, believes it's wrong to pay up and that it's better to establish good defenses. We spoke to him to find out why.
Cybercriminals increasingly using legitimate websites to hide malicious payloads
A new report shows a 121 percent increase in cybercriminals using legitimate websites to obfuscate malicious payloads.
The report from Egress, based on data from its Egress Defend cloud email security solution, shows YouTube, Amazon AWS, Google Docs, Firebase Storage, and DocuSign to be the top 10 most frequently used sites.
Advanced phishing attacks grow 365 percent
A new report has identified a 356 percent growth in the number of advanced phishing attacks attempted by threat actors in 2022.
The study from threat detection specialist Perception Point also shows that the overall number of attacks increased by 87 percent.
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