Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Email Threats Continue to Hit Businesses Where It Hurts Most The cyber threat landscape in 2024 saw a continued rise in email-based attacks, with businesses facing increasingly sophisticated forms of business email compromise (BEC) and fund transfer fraud (FTF). These threats aren’t just technical — they hit organizations financially, emotionally, and operationally.

Researchers at Cisco Talos warn that major phishing kits continue to incorporate features that allow them to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA). Commodity phishing kits like Tycoon 2FA and Evilproxy achieve this by using reverse proxies to intercept traffic from the authentication process during a phishing attack.

Phishing was the initial access vector in 50% of attacks during the first quarter of 2025, according to a new report from Cisco Talos. “Threat actors used phishing to achieve initial access in 50 percent of engagements, a notable increase from less than 10 percent last quarter,” Talos writes.

Researchers at Malwarebytes warn that phishing emails are impersonating the US Social Security Administration (SSA) to trick users into installing the ScreenConnect remote access tool. ScreenConnect is a legitimate tool used for remote IT management, but it can be abused by hackers to take control of victims’ computers.

The UK's Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology last month released its Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025, an annual piece of research designed to inform national policy and bolster the country's cyber resilience.

The mechanisms and dangers of email phishing are well known, as are the best practices for hardening organizations against it. Its spin-off, called vishing, is nothing new, but it’s both rapidly evolving, and unlike the more mainstream counterpart, too often overlooked by security professionals. According to the CrowdStrike 2025 Global Threat Report, these offbeat attacks saw a 442% increase in the second half of 2024 compared to the first half of the year.

Let’s face it: your inbox is a warzone. Email security is a constant battle between evolving threats and the defenses designed to stop them. Every day, attackers bombard user inboxes with increasingly sophisticated phishing attempts, malware, and social engineering attacks. So, how do we win the battle? It’s not as simple as slapping on a piece of software; it’s about implementing a multi-layered approach that balances AI-driven automation and human expertise.

The high profile MGM Resorts hack by ransomware group ALPHV/BlackCat has served as a wake up call to the hospitality industry, demonstrating that the industry is a lucrative target for cybercriminals. The hack was hugely impactful to MGM making for sensational headlines in mainstream media, however what struck security experts were the social engineering methods used by the threat actors and how effective they were in bypassing security controls and technologies.

The best secure email gateways mimic the tried and true “defense in depth” cybersecurity strategy by using a layered approach, including advanced features that make effective use of AI. The results are compelling, especially when two email security tools are used together, such as employing an additional secure email gateway to augment Microsoft Defender for Office 365 email security.