According to new research from Barracuda, millions of email attacks are being missed by organizations’ cybersecurity protection.
Using Barracuda Email Threat Scanner, 4,550 organizations scanned about 2,600,531 unique mailboxes and found 2,029,413 unique attacks in 2020. On average, every organization detected 512 attacks, and one out of seven mailboxes (14%) currently holds at least one attack sitting inside, even after email gateway solution has scanned the messages, states the cybersecurity firm Barracuda.
The attacks further fall into four email types after detection – phishing, scamming, extortion, and business email compromise (BEC). Out of the 2,029,413 unique attacks detected, phishing was amongst the number one threat missed by the organization’s email security solutions (59%), while scamming was termed the second most common (39%).
As extortion at 9% and BEC at 8% were less prevalent, cybercriminals tried to send these types of attacks in smaller chunks as they were highly personalized.
“Spear phishing threats are more dangerous than ever due to the sophistication of attackers, and while organizations have invested in protection against email threats, many of these attacks slip through gateways, landing in users inboxes,” says Don MacLennan, SVP, Engineering and Product Management, Email Protection, Barracuda. “As these numbers show, traditional email gateways are not enough. Customers should also use API-based inbox defenses to maximize their protection.”
The Director at XiTENYS, Kristian Connor, says many email threats slip past the email gateway. He states, “Threats like spear-phishing and business email compromise put companies at significant risk. Barracuda Email Threat Scanner detects these threats and helps us uncover additional ways we can help customers protect their people and data.”
With a redesigned version of the Barracuda Email Threat Scanner, Barracuda provides a free tool that helped get the above information. It is capable of supporting any company detect email threats that get past their email gateway.
The updated version of Barracuda Email Threat Scanner gives the user a completely new interface experience of the scanners’ dashboard, states the company. One of the functions includes previewing a scanned page that will let users monitor their scans progress even when the scan is under process.
It also provides access to early results as Email Threat Scanner scans mailboxes and finds attacks. An improved dashboard report of detected threats makes it easier to look upon specific insights and assume the findings.
After integrating Barracuda Sentinel directly with Office 365, it helps find threats inside a user’s mail system that security gateways cannot see.