Email security companies and their customers continue to battle the weakest link in email security as the latest email attacks prey on people’s trust in popular brands. These new attacks have the look and feel of trusted brands, increasing the likelihood that recipients will respond. Once easily identified as scams by way of poor design, multiple misspellings and grammatical errors, today’s spam and phishing attacks are so sophisticated and detailed that even experienced computer users fall victim to the scams.
In the past year, Red Condor has blocked and warned the public about phishing, spear phishing and blended threat campaigns spoofing eBay, Adobe, YouTube, Amazon, Apple, BlueMountain eCards, craigslist, Facebook and Twitter — among other popular brands.
In addition to the installation of malware on unsuspecting users’ computers, these campaigns can have more insidious results, such as violation of social trust. For example, a Adobe malware campaign, a fake security alert that targeted users of Adobe Software, also spoofed email addresses of managers and other employees within a bogus email thread. This technique made the email appear to come from a trusted person in the organization, thus increasing the likelihood the recipient would follow the instructions in the email.
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