Locks and Security News: your weekly locks and security industry newsletter
24th April 2024 Issue no. 702

Your industry news - first

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Millions of email attacks are being missed by organisations' cyber security protection

In 2020, 4,550 organisations used Barracuda Email Threat Scanner to scan 2,600,531 unique mailboxes and found 2,029,413 unique attacks. On average, 512 attacks were found per organisation, and one out of 7 mailboxes (14 per cent) had at least one attack currently sitting inside, even if messages were scanned by an email gateway solution.

The attacks detected fall into four email threat types: phishing, scamming, extortion, and business email compromise (BEC). Of the 2,029,413 unique attacks detected, phishing was the number one threat missed by the organisations' email security solutions (59 per cent). Scamming was the second most common (39 per cent).

Extortion (9 per cent) and BEC (8 per cent) were less prevalent, but cybercriminals tend to send these types of attacks in smaller volumes because they are highly personalised.

Today, Barracuda also announced a redesigned version of the Barracuda Email Threat Scanner, the free tool which was used to obtain the above data, and can help any company detect email threats that get past their email gateway.

The refreshed Barracuda Email Threat Scanner brings a complete user interface update to the scanner's dashboard. This includes a scan preview page, which allows users to monitor their scan's progress while the scan is running. It also includes access to early results as Email Threat Scanner scans mailboxes and finds attacks, and, improved dashboard reporting of detected threats, making it easier to hone in on specific insights and interpret the findings.

"Spear phishing threats are more dangerous than ever due to the sophistication of attackers, and while organisations have invested in protection against email threats, many of these attacks slip through gateways, landing in users' inboxes," said Don MacLennan, SVP, Engineering & 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."

Barracuda Sentinel integrates directly into Office 365 to find threats inside your mail system that security gateways can't see.

Visit www.barracuda.com to get more information.

10th February 2021