Spoiler alert: When it comes to email security and the fight against business email compromise (BEC) scams, phishing attacks, and other advanced email threats, 2020 won't be a cakewalk. Then again, neither was 2019. Whether it was ransomware, time-bombed email attacks that activate post-delivery, or the $700 million-a-month losses faced by businesses pummeled by surging BEC attacks, the past year...

As important as Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) is to the fight against Business Email Compromise (BEC) and other advanced email threats, it's really just the first piece of the email security puzzle. And it certainly won't cut it alone.Don't get me wrong. We've talked a lot about just how vital DMARC is to stopping email-based impersonation attacks. When...

The Wall Street Journal's report that a dozen US-based utilities were targets in a recent wave of coordinated phishing attacks should set off alarm bells throughout the sector and beyond. Energy producers and utilities don't just keep the lights on. They play a unique role in a country's critical infrastructure, encompassing economic health, public safety, and national security—making them...

Over the last four years, the information security community has learned a lot about business email compromise (BEC) and the inner workings of Nigerian cybercrime rings who have made it their mainstay. We know BEC fraud has been reported in all 50 states and in 177 countries worldwide. We know that since June 2016, over $26 billion has been lost as a result of BEC. But we also know that even at...

Time is running out to join industry thought leaders as a featured speaker at Trust 2020, The Next Generation Email Security Conference, on April 15-17 in Los Angeles. The deadline to submit topics for consideration is October 31, 2019. Trust 2020 is an exclusive, two-day customer event where senior security leaders from a wide range of industries converge to share thought-provoking ideas and...

Imagine going to the doctor and only being able to say “pain” or “sick”. You can’t say where you feel the pain, or what type of pain, or what is making you sick. Without this information, it is nearly impossible for the doctor to know how to treat you. From a cybersecurity perspective, this is very much like calling every email attack a “phishing attack" or even a “hack”. It limits the ability to...

High profile hacks over the last few months have put large organizations front and center of a media frenzy that highlights the dangers of inadequate data protection.

As Agari celebrates our 10th anniversary, I've had the opportunity to reflect on the last decade as an Agarian and how my life has changed as a result of my work with this company. It has been an undeniably exciting ten years, but also one full of challenges as we solve some of the hardest problems in email security. Fulfilling Our Mission I joined Agari when it was called Authentication...

When we first flipped on the lights in 2009, we knew we were embarking on an endeavor that wouldn’t be achieved overnight. We wanted to be deliberate, to build a rock-solid foundation—not a quick fix—that would support an email security ecosystem. We anticipated the hefty innovation and investment needed. But we also knew that investment would ultimately yield a durable solution that would change...

If you want to know why business email compromise (BEC) and other advanced email attacks keep working so well, just ask Dilbert. In one particularly biting installment of Scott Adams' popular workplace comic strip, our tech geek hero sits in his cubicle perusing an email that reads, "Enter your bank account number." Dilbert's thought bubble reads "Scam." Quick cut to engineer Alice. Same email,...

Awareness. Detection. Containment. Remediation. All necessary steps in the phishing incident response process for SOC analysts. Unfortunately, each of these steps takes time, and that time comes at a cost. According to the Q3 2019 Email Fraud and Identity Deception Trends report from Agari, employees now report an average 33,108 phishing incidents to corporate SOC teams each year—an 18% increase...

Business email compromise (BEC) has grown into a billion dollar industry as cybercriminals use look-alike domains and display name deception to trick employees into revealing sensitive information, depositing money into criminally-owned bank accounts, and sending thousands of dollars in gift cards via email—all without ever touching a legitimate email account. When these criminals do gain access...

Editor's Note: This post originally appeared on the Microsoft Security blog and has been republished here. You already know that email is the number one attack vector for cybercriminals. But what you might not know is that without a standard email security protocol called Domain Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC), your organization is open to the phishing attacks that...

At Agari we often talk about the evolving nature of advanced email attacks and the identity deception tactics that go with them. These attacks bypass legacy controls and like a magician delighting a curious audience, they trick the human psyche by targeting core human emotions such as fear, anxiety and curiosity. Of course, the magic in this case comes with ill intent. A good example of a...

The 250% increase in business email compromise (BEC) scams over the past year should concern every organization, as should estimates of $26 billion in losses over the last five years from these attacks. While some organizations consider whitelisting their email lists to provide protection, occasionally encouraged by their email security provider, this strategy simply will not work with the ever...

In any industry, the strive for digital transformation brings with it risk as well as opportunity. This is no more apparent than in the defense sector where several high-profile incidents have exposed vulnerabilities in areas such as email applications and other connected IoT devices. 

Marketo. Salesforce. Eloqua. Bamboo HR. Zendesk. It only takes a minute to realize how much organizations love third-party senders. They are typically responsible for sending our important customer notifications, marketing promotions, prospecting emails, and even employee information.Because their mail is so important to your business, we should do what we can to help them become DMARC-compliant....

When I joined Agari five years ago, I worked out of my home office in Raleigh, where all I needed was a good internet connection and access to a well-connected airport like RDU. At the time, there were only two employees in the area and thus, there was little need for an Agari office outside of headquarters in Silicon Valley. But with a mission as ambitious as ours—to protect digital...

Creating a future where all of our customers can trust their inbox can push Agari engineers to the limits of available technologies. In fact, handling the scaling requirements of Cloud Email Protection has led our Sensor team to test some of the most advanced features of the Python programming language. To maintain quality while using these features, our team created some of the first approaches...

Despite best efforts over the past decade, email security is broken. Human defenses cannot protect us from nefarious attacks, and cybercriminals continue to exploit human trust to run sophisticated attacks at scale. This is the reality of our current environment. Unfortunately, email will continue to be the attack surface of choice until the economic equation is reversed for the crime rings...