Cofense Blog

What is definition of phishing?

Double Barrel Throwdown Contest Terms and Conditions

Please read before entering, as entry in this contest constitutes acceptance of these rules. No purchase is necessary to participate. The contest is open to all entrants who submit a valid entry form using a qualified email address. ENTRY IN THIS CONTEST CONSTITUTES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE OFFICIAL RULES The Double Barrel Throwdown (the “Contest”) is a competition to produce the most original, persuasive, and realistic Double Barrel phishing scenarios. PhishMe’s panel – composed of PhishMe employees – will select the best entry according to those criteria, with the winner receiving a Google Nexus tablet. To submit a valid entry...

Can a simulated phishing attack be counterproductive?

I always enjoy reading articles from IT professionals who have sent simulated phishing exercises to their employees.  As I checked my email over the weekend my good friends at Google were kind enough to alert me about a new article from Tom Cochran, CTO of Atlantic Media, on this subject so I poured a fresh cup of coffee and started to read.

The Phish Chain: Phishing Attack from Start to Finish

A few years ago, Computer Security Intelligence expert, Mike Cloppert discussed the Cyber Kill Chain, the process through which a cybercriminal uses malware to attack the victim. In a recent webinar titled “How to Use Email-based Threat Intelligence To Catch a Phish,” Securosis’ Mike Rothman applied Cloppert’s methodology to how cyberattacks work in the instance of a phishing attack. The kill chain begins with weaponization and ends with monetization, the point at which credentials are stolen. In this post, we’ll dig into the Phish Food Chain, as explained by Mike Rothman and discuss how cybercriminals utilize this process to attack your brand. Let’s take...

What is MTTK and Why is it Important to Cybersecurity?

There has been much talk recently about MTTK, but what is MTTK and why is it so important? This post explores the term and explains why MTTK is such an important concept in cybersecurity terms. When your organization is attacked, how long does it take you to know that the attack is taking place? Of course, we’d all like to be able to answer “right away.” However, for many companies that isn’t the case. Examples of phishing attacks lodged against major brands who don’t discover that they are being phished until months later have become commonplace. When a phishing attack...

Build Phishing Countermeasures to Protect Your Brand

Corporations fight phishing each and every day. Large and recognizable financial institutions, retail companies, internet service providers/telecommunication companies are among those most heavily targeted victims of phishing. While the aftermath of a phishing attack is costly and yields long-term consequences, it’s quite difficult to keep up with cybercriminals. It’s shockingly easy for cybercriminals to create a phishing site targeted at your brand, so easy that the cybercriminal simply needs to unpack and upload a pre-built “phishing kit” in order to create a new phishing website. Just one phishing kit can produce hundreds of phishing URLs. With just a few clicks...

DMARC Failed to Protect Against Walmart Spam

Think that DMARC is all that you need to prevent your company from email spam? Think again. Last week, there was a spam campaign that imitated a Walmart.com receipt. An email was sent to Walmart customers falsely confirming the purchase of a large flat screen TV costing approximately $1,000. The cinematic home experience was to be enjoyed by someone else, since the receipt showed the item was being shipped to an address that would be unfamiliar to the customer. Upon receiving this email, the natural reaction would be to click on the link in email to find out more about...

Do young employees present a phishing risk?

Spring. For some it signals rejuvenation, rebirth, everything blooming…but for security administrators it can mean new security risk. Spring means that the next round of college seniors will be entering the workforce soon, which for phishers means a fresh group of targets. Hopefully their college educations have prepared them for the majority of challenges they will face, but when it comes to phishing that is unlikely. The types of phishing emails students and consumers receive are quite different from what employees receive, and without training, young employees can’t be expected to avoid tactics they haven’t seen.

2-factor authentication wouldn’t have prevented AP Twitter hack

When a hacked Twitter account spreads false news of an explosion at the White House and causes hysteria that spurs a 140 point drop in the stock market, it should encourage calls for Twitter to bolster its security measures, so it’s no surprise that many are clamoring for Twitter to offer 2-factor authentication. One problem with this – news outlets are reporting that hackers gained access to the AP’s account through a phishing attack. While 2-factor authentication makes it more difficult to phish an account, it will not prevent this type of attack from being successful (nor will a more...

How to defend against longline phishing attacks

A report from ProofPoint released at the RSA conference discussed what is supposedly a new phishing technique dubbed “longline” phishing.  The report touts “longlining” as the newest way criminals are sending phishing emails in efforts to bypass technical controls.  Mass customization of emails allows criminals to fly under the radar of most email filters and successfully deliver spear-phishing emails to a larger number of email users at a single organization.  This tactic combines the best of both worlds from the criminal’s standpoint, but it doesn’t really change the game in terms of defending against phishing attacks, as your users still...