Resources

Blog

The Science Behind the Scenes: How Machine Learning Combats Phishing Attacks and BEC

Because email remains the most ubiquitous form of business communication, it continues to be a favorite attack vector for cybercriminals. Email has always been vulnerable because it was not originally designed with security or privacy in mind. As a result, email security vendors emerged to protect this critical communication channel. In the early days, many vendors used signature or reputation...
Blog

Financials & Card Data Top Q3 Targets on the Dark Web

In Q3, credit unions nearly overtook national banks as the top targeted industry on the Dark Web, according to recent data from Fortra’s PhishLabs.
Blog

Emails Reported as Malicious Reach Four-Quarter High in Q3

The volume of malicious emails reported in corporate inboxes has reached a four-quarter high, according to the latest data from Fortra's PhishLabs.
Blog

What Is Whaling Phishing & How Does It Work?

“Whaling” phishing fraud attacks target the C-suite of a company which creates high risk of extremely sensitive, mission-critical data being stolen and exposed. Fortunately, protecting the organization from these attacks is possible. Whaling phishing is a type of phishing attack targeting larger, high-value targets, which is why it's called "Whaling." Attackers themselves often pretend to be C...
Blog

What Is Email Spoofing & How You Protect Against It

What is Email Spoofing? Email spoofing is one of the most common forms of cybercriminal activity, specifically a form of identity deception that's widely used in phishing and spam attacks. It underpins the mechanism required to conduct hacking activities, and it can take many forms. Unfortunately, most email users will eventually receive an email that has been spoofed—whether they know it or not...
Press Release

Agari Identifies First-ever Reported Russian BEC Cybercriminal Ring Targeting Executives in 46 Countries Across Six Continents

FOSTER CITY, Calif. (July 7, 2020) -- Agari , the market share leader in phishing defense solutions for the enterprise, revealed today details of the threat actor group dubbed Cosmic Lynx, the first-ever reported Russian cybercriminal ring to conduct business email compromise (BEC) phishing scams. This is a historic shift to the global email threat landscape and portends new and sophisticated...
Blog

Customer Phishing Protection Couldn’t Be Easier with PhishLabs' Digital Risk Protection

It’s not news that cybercrime is a constant battle—large enterprises and small businesses everywhere are susceptible to a myriad of advanced email threats and socially engineered attacks , such as executive or brand impersonation. According to IC3’s Internet Crime Report, over $44 million in losses in 2021 were a direct result of malicious phishing and advanced email scams. Despite billions having...
Press Release

Blunting BEC Capers that Continue to Target and Devastate SMBs and Enterprises

In his guest blog on The Last Watchdog, John Wilson looks at why Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks are on the rise, how they are orchestrated, and what organizations can do to stop this all-too-common attack vector. Excerpt: "BEC is a growing concern, and attackers have taken full advantage of the upheaval the COVID-19 pandemic has caused to ramp up their efforts. These campaigns are hard to...
Blog

Common Phishing Email Attacks | Examples & Descriptions

What does a phishing email look like? We've compiled phishing email examples to help show what a spoofed email looks like to prevent against phishing attacks. Brand deception phishing is the most common example of phishing people will come across. Brand deception phishing occurs when an attacker mimics a trusted company in an email and asks someone for their personal information like credit card...
Blog

What Is Email Phishing? Protect Your Enterprise

Phishing emails can steal sensitive data and cost companies' their reputation. However, protecting a company from these scammers doesn't need to be difficult. What Is Email Phishing? Phishing is when an attacker mimics a trusted person or brand in an attempt to steal sensitive information, or gain a foothold inside a company network. While phishing emails are by far the most popular, these attacks...
Press Release

Phishing Sustain Near- Record Levels Through the First Half of 2021

Agari by Fortra features in APWG's Q2 Phishing Activity Trends Report. Here are some highlights: APWG saw 222,127 attacks in June 2021, the third worst month in APWG’s reporting history. Financial institutions and social media sectors were the most frequently victimized. Increases in vishing and smishing continue to be observed. Vishing is phishing advertised via voice messages, and smishing is...
Press Release

How International Scam Artists Pulled Off an Epic Theft of Covid Benefits

Covid-19 provided ample opportunities for threat actors to exploit weaknesses in online systems. In this article by NBC News, spokespeople from Agari explain how one threat actor group, Scattered Canary, used email to fraudulently claim Covid relief unemployment benefits potentially worth millions of US dollars. Read the full article here . Agari’s Cyber Intelligence Division is dedicated to...
Blog

TLS Email Encryption: What It Is & How to Check if Your Email Is Using It

What exactly is TLS when it comes to email encryption? TLS, or cybersecurity protocol Transport Layer Security first developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), was designed to establish secure communications that provide both privacy and data security. Originally created from another encryption protocol called Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, you may hear others use SSL and TLS...
Blog

Inside a Compromised Account: How Cybercriminals Use Credential Phishing to Further BEC Scams

Why would a cybercriminal spend time developing malware when he can simply trick unsuspecting users into handing over their passwords? Why would a threat actor spend her money and resources on ransomware, when she can get that same information through a compromised account? It’s a good question, and exactly what the Agari Cyber Intelligence Division wanted to discover. In a growing trend known as...
Press Release

Trust 2021 Empowers Cybersecurity Organizations with New Insights and Actions to Stop Phishing

FOSTER CITY, Calif. and LONDON (April 15, 2021) – Interest in the Trust 2021 conference soared in the wake of the newly released FBI IC3 fraud report that stated business email compromise (BEC) and other email-based threats accelerated. An analysis of the reports showed that financially motivated fraud added up to $3.5 billion in losses, equaling 70% of all cybercrime losses in 2020. CISO...
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Protecting Digital Communications During the Digital Transformation: A Look Back at Trust 2021

While we’re all Zoomed, Webexed and Teamed out after thirteen months of the pandemic, cybercriminals are taking advantage of the situation. They know we’re heavily relying on digital communications and they’re sending fake emails, pretending to be your boss. They’re sending fake invoices, pretending to be your vendor. They’re even sending fake requests for gift cards, on the off-chance that...
Blog

Agari Report: New BEC Scam 7X More Costly Than Average, Bigger Phish Start Angling In

Sophisticated new threat actors, evolving phishing tactics, and a $800,000 business email compromise (BEC) scam in the second half of 2020 all signal big trouble ahead, according to new analysis from the Agari Cyber Intelligence Division (ACID). As captured in our H1 2021 Email Fraud & Identity Deception Trends Report , successful attacks on Magellan Health, GoDaddy, and the SolarWinds "hack of...
Blog

Cosmic Lynx Returns in 2021 with Updated Tricks

In July 2020, we published a report on a Russian-based BEC group we called Cosmic Lynx . In that report , we described the tactics used by the group, which included its targeting of senior executives at large companies with a global footprint and how it uses mergers and acquisitions (M&A) themes in its BEC email lures. Shortly after we published the report, we saw a significant decrease in Cosmic...
Press Release

Are Organizations Neglecting Business Email Compromise?

While ransomware is rightly positioned as the most immediate cybersecurity threat, businesses shouldn't underestimate the threat business email compromise (BEC) attacks present to organizations. In this article, Ciaran Rafferty, Managing Director,, discusses the release of the NCSC’s annual review for 2021 and looks at the implications for email security. Originally published in Computing Security...