Prevent ransomware attacks with email security
Why ransomware matters in today’s threat landscape
Cybercrime is becoming increasingly sophisticated and broader in scope. Phishing attacks may have been around since the dawn of email, but they persist. Those carrying out attacks are searching for the smallest of openings to break into an organizations’ infrastructure to facilitate enormous financial rewards.
Today, 75 percent of cyber attacks originate from email, and attackers are working together to launch joint attacks on large organizations.
Also read: Top 10 hacks and cyber security threats of 2022
Once malware threat actors have used phishing emails to infect organizations’ machines and networks, attacks spread laterally, with access sold to ransomware brokers. According to Verizon’s Data Breach Investigation’s report 2022, web applications and email remain the top two vectors for breaches.
Meanwhile, Cyber Security Hub’s own survey on the top cyber-security trends in 2022 shows that phishing and social engineering attacks are among the greatest threats facing organizations today, with more than 70 percent of respondents citing it as one of their top three cyber-security threats (see Figure 1).
Ransomware groups are conscious to the fact that large corporations are more likely to pay multi-million-dollar ransoms, but national governments cannot rest on their laurels either; in 2021, Cyber Research Labs documented 48 government agencies spanning 21 countries that were affected by ransomware.
Figure 1:
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Threat actor’s tactics are becoming ever more sinister. When combined with the migration to cloud email access – which comes with its own security implications – it is more important than ever to detect and block malicious actors from compromising businesses data and information via email attacks.
Also read: Five biggest ransomware attacks you need to know about
In this Cyber Security Hub article you will learn where the key vulnerabilities lie for those without sufficient email security, how to successfully detect a security breach before it leads to data loss, information loss and email fraud, and how to block threat actors from carrying out successful attacks. It will delve into today’s best practices and solutions to ensure your email security.
Ignore email security at your peril
As the ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) economy matures, ransomware gangs are demonstrating supreme confidence in their debilitating actions.
Recently, Costa Rica’s government was held hostage by the Conti Group, which demanded a US$20m ransom and threatened to overthrow the government if their demands were not met. Other types of attacks using email as a vector include business email compromise (BEC), spam and botnets.
According to a US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report from May 2022, BEC scams represented a $43bn loss across both international and domestic US organizations between June 2016 and December 2022. During that timeframe the FBI was alerted to more than 240,000 BEC incidents.
Verizon has also noted a 13 percent increase in ransomware breaches in 2022. Despite these facts, email remains an area much ignored by many organizations around the globe.
In terms of the data that is being targeted, during the early phase of an attack, low-level data may be the target. Ultimately, however, groups are looking to steal more sensitive data which influences who they are targeting.
One example lies with human resources (HR), as hackers may pose as job seekers in the hope that HR personnel will open emails and attachments from unknown senders, allowing the ransomware to spread. Attackers then have access to confidential and sensitive company information.
While it is important to implement security measures that are offered by email providers, for example, there are additional tactics you should consider beyond the traditional security stack which we will consider further in this article.
Employing a strategy to overcome evolving ransomware threats
To overcome changing defensive tactics, attackers will always look for new avenues in which to exhibit their criminal abilities. One such method, telephone-oriented attack delivery (TOAD), does not have a payload but uses a phone number that when called, a bad actor will answer and direct their victim to manually download malicious content, thus infecting their computer with ransomware.
As the challenges change, organizations need to treat the playing field as if it will never be fair to them. By adding layers to their security strategies, however, they stand a good chance of deterring ransomware gangs.
There is no silver bullet for the challenge, however, with email compromises growing exponentially due to ever more sophisticated methods and automation that goes beyond scanning, blocking and identifying bad actors sending messages.
Adding layers such as DMARC email authentication to have a better chance of stopping email fraud or BEC in its tracks, implementing isolation training for at-risk users that aligns with their email risk, or isolation of URLs clicked on from email. Other methods include mSOAR – the automatic remediation of malicious messages post-delivery; abuse mailbox automation; and enhanced data protection such as email DLP and encryption.
Also read: Top 5 recent cyber attacks you should know about
Everyone is a target
Everyone within a company, from interns to the CEO, are prime targets for threat actors seeking access to deploy ransomware. Even gaining access to a small foothold in a business using a compromised employee account can have devastating consequences. Malicious actors can move laterally, escalating the priviledges they have access to until they have the ability to take over a company’s entire enterprise network.
Best practices for alert organizations
A comprehensive email security strategy can easily be implemented, but it will require employees to use strong passwords and utilize email encryption for both email content and attachments. Security best practices for BYOD should also be employed by companies that allow their employees access to corporate email on personal devices.
To protect employees against advanced threats, organizations should use malware sandbox analysis inline and to not forward emails until they have been checked. Companies should also implement software to scan incoming communications and block those that contain malicious software.
When an email account is compromised it has the potential to cause a huge amount of damage in potential data loss or attacks launched from a compromised email account to other internal or third-party users. In these cases, having a cloud access security broker (CASB) solution can help identify and remediate potentially suspicious logins.
Organizations can also benefit from joint integration with identity access management vendors to automatically reset passwords in cases where credentials have been potentially compromised. Proofpoint’s experts recommend enforcing stricter authentication for users who receive targeted attacks.
Firms can additionally implement a data protection solution to identify sensitive data and prevent it from being lost via email. This is because malware developers are leasing out their skills to affiliates who use turn-key solutions to infect victims. In turn, it is becoming easier and more profitable for less-skilled criminals to seize enterprise networks with military-grade encryption and demand millions for the key to the files.
A crucial part of defense against malware are secure backups, as threat actors may attempt to poison or delete backups during their operations.
With multi-layered intrusions the new normal, organizations should always assume all systems are important enough to be patched, protected and monitored.
Conclusion: understand the risks and act
Organizations need to achieve stronger visibility of the ransomware threats they face, but also ensure their workforces are alert to the risks they are exposed to through education, support and network protections.
By understanding ransomware risk and details organizations will be able to effectively shift their approach and prevent an attack from happening.
The solutions exist and selecting the right partners helps organizations maintain their focus on their own goals and aims. Solutions such as Proofpoint’s TAP Dashboard help organizations to understand their security postures within their industries, who within their organizations is being specifically targeted, and with what type of malware threats.
Most threat actors are motivated by financial reward, so protecting data and ensuring staff are educated should never be up for debate. Organizations should focus on behaviour rather than artifacts to have a stronger defence against ever-evolving threats.
Finally, a people-centric approach to ransomware may not be typical, but it is necessary given the risks. While endpoints and other technology can help stop ransomware after activated, it is always easier to stop attacks before they start.
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