Resources

Guide

Machine Learning Models in Cloud Email Protection

Traditional email security products struggle to detect email impersonation threats such as Business Email Compromise (BEC) and spear phishing campaigns. These threats consistently bypass defenses that rely on signatures and policies like Secure Email Gateways and native-cloud email filters. This guide breaks down how Fortra uses advanced data science, including machine learning models, to find and mitigate attacks that slip past traditional email defenses.
Guide

Anatomy of a Compromised Account

Credential phishing leads to compromised accounts, and compromised accounts lead to more credential phishing. In order to uncover the mechanics, the Agari Cyber Intelligence Division seeded more than 8,000 phishing sites with fake credentials and then monitored what happened next. In this report, you’ll discover more about how cybercriminals access and use compromised accounts, including How 50%...
Guide

Exaggerated Lion Threat Dossier: BEC Check Fraud Ring

Exaggerated Lion is a BEC cybercrime ring that operates out of Africa with members in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. This is one of the most prolific BEC groups ever discovered, targeting more than 3,000 employees at nearly 2,100 companies throughout the United States. Download this report for details including: How they name, register and host domains disguised to mimic trusted infrastructure. Their...
Guide

Behind the 'From' Lines: Email Fraud on a Global Scale

Organized criminals are targeting businesses with identity deception attacks that cause financial losses and broken trust, but Agari is changing the game. Using responsible active defense techniques to analyze criminal email accounts, the Agari Cyber Intelligence Division (ACID) unmasked 10 cybercriminal groups during a 10-month period. ACID has used the results of its work to: Warn financial...
Guide

Silent Starling Threat Dossier: BEC to VEC

Vendor email compromise is a new form of advanced email attack that uses compromised email accounts to target the global supply chain. With the cybercriminal group we’ve named Silent Starling, we see how devastating these attacks can be. Download the threat actor dossier to: How Silent Starling uses phishing email lures to target their victims Why compromised email accounts make email attacks easy...
Guide

Scattered Canary Threat Dossier

Business email compromise (BEC) has continued to grow into a billion-dollar industry as cybercriminals turn to it as their preferred scam. But with the West African gang we’ve named Scattered Canary, we have deeper insight into how BEC is connected to the rest of cybercrime, and why it has grown in recent years. Download the threat dossier to learn: How Scattered Canary grew from a one-man startup...
Guide

Scarlet Widow Part 2: BEC Bitcoin Laundry—Scam, Rinse, Repeat

While many cybercriminal gangs scam medium-sized and large corporations, Agari has now uncovered and documented the practices of a Nigeria-based scammer group, dubbed Scarlet Widow, that has evolved a different strategy focused on more vulnerable sectors such as school districts, universities, and nonprofits. In this report, we uncover: How Scarlet Widow transitioned from romance scams to tax...
Guide

Cosmic Lynx Threat Dossier: The Rise of Russian BEC

Cosmic Lynx is a Russia-based BEC cybercriminal organization that has significantly impacted the email threat landscape with sophisticated, high-dollar phishing attacks. In this threat dossier, you’ll discover key details about Cosmic Lynx, including: How Cosmic targets global corporations with incredibly sophisticated BEC attacks How Cosmic Lynx exploits DMARC controls to impersonate corporate...
Guide

Threat Intelligence Brief: The Geography of BEC

Business Email Compromise (BEC) is a worldwide scourge affecting more than three-fourths of the world’s economies. Around the globe, BEC cybercriminals operate with impunity to steal $26 billion each year. The Agari Cyber Intelligence Division conducted nearly 10,000 active engagements with BEC threat actors and captured the scope of BEC’s global footprint and trends. In this report, you’ll...
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...
Guide

Domains Associated with Exaggerated Lion BEC Campaigns

Below is the list of domains associated with Exaggerated Lion BEC Campaigns. You can access the PDF version of this list by clicking the "Download PDF Version" button at the top of this page. 1secure-portal-server.online admin-office-exec-ssl-secure-server-portal-exec.management admin-office-exec-ssl-secured-server-portal-exec.management admin-server-apps.management admin-servers-apps.management...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Press Release

Agari Outperforms Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Expectations; Uncovers Cybercriminals Behind COVID-19 Unemployment Fraud; Earns Industry Recognitions for Innovation

FOSTER CITY, CA and LONDON (Jan. 6, 2021) -- Agari, the market share leader in phishing defense solutions for the enterprise, today announced performance results for its fiscal fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2020. Highlights include: 33% global customer growth First to identify one of the cybercriminal rings behind U.S. CARES Act Fraud First to uncover Russian “BEC” cybercriminal...
Press Release

KnowBe4 and Agari Announce New Partnership to Transform Phishing Protection

Tampa Bay, FL (March 5, 2020) – KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, today announced a new partnership with Agari, the market share leader in phishing defense solutions for the enterprise, that creates a best-in-class approach to defend against phishing attacks at scale. As a result of this new partnership, information security...
Press Release

New Cybersecurity Book Highlights Growing Threat of Social Engineering

Book Offers Tools and Techniques to Prevent Social Engineering-based Email Attacks SAN MATEO, Calif. – Dec. 13, 2016 – Agari , a leading cybersecurity company, today announced the release of a new book by Agari Chief Scientist Markus Jakobsson and other cybersecurity thought leaders, Understanding Social Engineering Based Scams . The book describes the increased use of social engineering for email...