Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

The digital supply chain refers to the chain of third-party digital tools, services and infrastructure that your company depends on for a particular first-party service (such as your website or SaaS platform). In an ever-changing digital landscape, supply chains can be brittle with many unseen risks. The nature of supply chain risk is transitive; any part of the often long and complicated digital supply chain can be compromised, causing all components downstream of it to also be compromised.

Fluctuations in consecutive quarterly reports demonstrates that organizations should be worried that their cyber defenses may not be strong enough to stop phishing attacks. I wrote an article back in April of last year about how 1 in 8 emails make it to a user’s Inbox. That number has remained relatively consistent — so much that even the Threat Insights Report for Q1 2024 from HP Wolf Security shows that stat is still accurate. But then there’s the Threat Insights Report for Q4 2023.

Netskope Threat Labs is tracking multiple phishing campaigns that abuse Cloudflare Workers. The campaigns are likely the work of different attackers since they use two very different techniques. One campaign (similar to the previously disclosed Azorult campaign) uses HTML smuggling, a detection evasion technique often used for downloading malware, to hide the phishing content from network inspection.

Several phishing campaigns are targeting users of the Foxit PDF Reader, according to researchers at Check Point. Foxit is a popular alternative to Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing PDF files. “Check Point Research has identified an unusual pattern of behavior involving PDF exploitation, mainly targeting users of Foxit Reader,” the researchers write. “This exploit triggers security warnings that could deceive unsuspecting users into executing harmful commands.

In Q1 2024, we saw an evolution in techniques used by attackers, some of which may point to longer term trends in the variation and sophistication of attacks faced by organizations. In particular, with regards to phishing, we saw SMS and voice-based tactics being used, which raises concern around the potential for deep fakes and AI-type technologies to further enhance the effectiveness of phishing attacks.

Two positive steps were taken last month to limit the damage caused by phishing and Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks when a joint action by UK and EU law enforcement agencies compromised the infrastructure of the phishing-as-a-service operation LabHost and a major BEC operator was convicted in US Federal Court. While law enforcement operations are integral to defeating cybercrime, disrupting one or two adversary groups does not minimize the threat.

Phishing is not going away—it’s morphing and evolving. As an example, in late 2022 the overnight commodification of artificial intelligence (AI) changed the phishing threat landscape forever, lowering the barrier to entry for novice fraudsters who had previously had the motives, but lacked the means to launch sophisticated scams. ChatGPT and fraud-specific Generative AI tools (like the aptly named FraudGPT and WormGPT) granted malefactors the ability to supercharge and scale their operations.

Researchers at IBM X-Force are tracking several large phishing campaigns spreading an updated version of the Grandoreiro banking trojan. The criminal malware operation was disrupted by law enforcement in January 2024 but resurfaced in March with an expanded set of targets. The new version of the malware is targeting more than 1,500 banks in over sixty countries.

New data covering cyber insurance claims through 2023 shows claims have increased while reaffirming what we already know: phishing and social engineering are the real problem. If you’ve read enough of my articles here, you already know my view is a bit skewed towards the need for organizations to be aware of the true dangers of email-based cyber attacks.

Phishing is one of the most common forms of cyber attack that organizations face nowadays. A 2024 risk report states that 94% of organizations fall victim to phishing attacks, and 96% are negatively impacted by them. However, phishing attacks are not only growing in number but are also more sophisticated and successful. This is owing to the modern multi-stage phishing attack, which is common nowadays.