We have just published an app note which explains how a leading cybersecurity company improved its email communications and security using SP Guard. Before using SP Guard deceptive spearphishing emails were interfering with customer service email communications. Using SP Guard to differentiate real emails from attacks, customer service and security were improved. You can download the app note for free from our White Papers page.
We have posted two more videos on our YouTube Channel. In “Fighting Phishing” we how you can take the email interface back from attackers. In “The Inbox That Works” we demonstrate the Truemark service for consumers.
Following the compromise of contact information such as names and email addresses for 76 million individual customers and 7 million small businesses, JPMorgan Chase is preparing for spearphishing attacks against its customers. . Followers of Iconix know what spearphishing is -- the bad guy sends an email that pretends to be from a trusted sender. The recipient clicks a link or opens an attachment and bad things happen. When that attack targets bank customers, the obvious bad thing is a compromise that will steal the victim's money from the compromised bank. Fox News reports a list of other bad things the bad [...]
In For Email Newsletters, a Death Greatly Exaggerated, David Carr of the New York Times writes about the resilience of email as a means of communication. Carr writes: An email newsletter generally shows up in your inbox because you asked for it and it includes links to content you have deemed relevant. In other words, it’s important content you want in list form, which seems like a suddenly modern approach... It makes sense. My personal digital hierarchy, which I assume is fairly common, goes like this: email first, because it is for and about me; social media next, because it is [...]
TrendMicro is reporting that bad guys in Japan are abusing Microsoft's security functionality, Software Restriction Policies, to disable security tools. The malware, termed BKDR_VAWTRAK, searches for commonly used security applications. If a security application is detected, the malware modifies the registry keys such that Software Restriction Policies will run the security software in a restricted state -- rendering it useless. The malware is distributed using malicious emails and compromised websites. This malware is being used to facilitate unauthorized banking transactions in Japan. Quoting TrendMicro, [The Japanese] National Police Agency mentioned that the current estimated total cost of unauthorized transactions suffered by [...]
With all the attention of hacking and malware and badguys, we sometime lose sight of the branding side of Iconix, our Truemark service. The core issue in branding emails and identifying trusted emails is the same -- reliable identification of the source of the message. In our SP Guard security offering, knowing who sent the email helps recipients avoid being taking in by deception. In the Truemark service, we put senders' logos in the inbox to extend consumers' engagement with the brands they love. How valuable is a brand? Do consumers really care about brands? From a fascinating infographic by FinancesOnline.com: [...]
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that new research from the State University of North Carolina shows that people are easily deceived by targeted emails. The researchers found that although people were aware of how spearphishing worked and confident in their abilities to avoid deception, people were, nevertheless, deceived. Before taking the test, 89% of the subjects said they were confident that they could spot spearphishing emails. When put to the test, just 4 of the 53 subjects were able to correctly spot the spearphishing messages. More than half of the test subjects missed more than half of the fake [...]
The official website of the London Olympics includes a "Stay Safe Online" page. The page contains a link to a list of hundreds of scams that use the Olympic Games as bait to trap the unwary. The most common scams are fraudulent emails scams where emails are sent falsely claiming to be from London 2012, or other organisations involved in the Games, but that are actually the first step in a fraud scam. They typically encourage the recipient to reveal information such as bank details or to part with money as an up-front payment in order to release a prize. [...]
ICONIX, Inc., has been named to the Online Trust Alliance (OTA) 2012 Honor Roll. This designation is based on a composite trust score of security and privacy measures at hundreds of online sites. Designed to recognize leadership, the Honor Roll distinguishes Iconix as a “North Star” to inspire others. Of the companies evaluated by the non-profit, member-based OTA, less than 30% made the grade. As part of the 2012 study, released June 6, 2012, OTA analyzed the adoption of key security and privacy initiatives, providing benchmark reporting and comparisons between key industry sectors including leading internet retailers, FDIC Top 100 [...]
It is being widely reported in the press that an estimated 24 million Zappos user accounts have been compromised. Mashable reports: Robert Siciliano, a McAfee consultant and identity theft expert, says he expects whoever hacked Zappos’s site will now sell the data to people who run phishing scams. “They’ll sell it 10,000 accounts at a time, short money, like $100,” he says. While hackers don’t have complete credit card numbers, Siciliano says there’s enough information for a hacker to approach affected users as either Zappos or the credit card company and then ask them for more data — the classic [...]
