Experts Explain Email-Based Threats and Ways to Defend Against Them
Summary
Security experts discuss how email enables phishing and ransomware delivery, including attachment and link evasion tactics, social engineering, and defenses such as automated scanning, employee training, and reporting suspicious messages.
Key points
- Experts attributed a sharp rise in phishing during the shift to remote work; one cited a 167% increase from March to April 2020.
- Email is an effective delivery channel because attackers can reach many users and exploit routine clicking behavior; messages often deliver links to malware rather than ransomware directly.
- Malicious attachments may use JavaScript or VBA, obfuscation, encryption, and living-off-the-land techniques to evade security tools.
- Attackers may cloak malicious content from URL scanners or use legitimate-site open redirects to disguise phishing destinations.
- Social engineering can exploit urgency and fear, including COVID-themed impersonation and business email compromise.
- Suggested defenses include scanning attachments, analyzing external links, blocking image-only messages, training employees to report suspicious email, and applying basic security hygiene such as MFA and patching.
Article Details
- Topic
- Expert discussion of email-based threats, including phishing and ransomware delivery, evasion techniques, and defensive measures.
People
Vendors
HuntressTo provide some insider insight on the current state of email-based threats, we called upon Sébastien Goutal, Chief Science Officer at Vade, and John Hammond, Senior Security Researcher at Huntress.VadeTo provide some insider insight on the current state of email-based threats, we called upon Sébastien Goutal, Chief Science Officer at Vade, and John Hammond, Senior Security Researcher at Huntress.