So, what is phishing? The term “phishing” is a spin on the word fishing, because criminals are dangling a fake “lure” (the legitimate-looking email, website, or ad) hoping users will “bite” by providing the information the criminals have requested – such as credit card numbers, account numbers, passwords, usernames, or other valuable information.
Targeting an organization through a phishing campaign is efficient, highly effective, and inexpensive. Phishing campaigns are efficient because a well-orchestrated campaign may be used to target multiple organizations. They are highly effective because it’s relatively easy to convince an employee that they must act on one of their many online accounts than it is to identify and exploit a vulnerability in software code. Lastly, phishing campaigns are inexpensive because they do not require sophisticated software tools to initiate, manage, or monitor.
Many organizations rely upon the built-in Microsoft 365 security settings or other configuration options provided by their cloud email provider. While the built-in security settings may be capable of identifying and quarantining conspicuous spam and bulk-email they are incapable of identifying and quarantining modern threats and coordinated phishing campaigns.
To keep your organization protected from modern email borne threats the industry standard best practice is to implement a third party hosted email security solution. A third party hosted email security solution is placed in front of your email service. Emails sent to the organization must pass through the email security solution before delivery to the end users’ mailbox. An effective email security solution will use a multi-layered approach such as URL, phone number, phrase, pattern, attachment, SPF, and Internet Protocol (IP) filters, real-time blocklists as well as email link protection to filter out malicious emails and attachments. Additional security features such as virus scanning, country blocking, and advanced filtering options may also be used to fine-tune the organizations security posture.
To learn more about how Admiral’s Managed Email Security services and other cyber-security solutions can protect your organization from modern email borne threats contact us today!
