Cyberattacks delivered via email continue to increase and, with generative artificial intelligence (AI), have become even more dangerous, according to a new report from Barracuda Networks.
After analyzing 69 million attacks on 4.5 million mailboxes over the past 12 months, Barracuda said business email compromise (BEC), conversation hijacking and QR code attacks were growing.
In fact, BEC attacks now account for a tenth (10.6%) of all email-based social engineering attacks, up from 8% in 2022 and up from 9% in 2021. At the same time, the conversation hijacking accounted for 0.5% of attacks. all social engineering attacks over the past year, representing an increase of around 70%, compared to 0.3% in 2022.
Gmail and bit.ly
The overall stake of this method is relatively small as it requires a lot of effort to execute, but the payout can still be significant, Barracuda warns.
With conversation hijacking, a threat actor will compromise a person's email account and search for conversations with potential targets. They will then “hijack” the conversation and respond to the last email, continuing the chain of communication. That way, the victim has no reason not to trust the content of the email, making it much easier to distribute malware and steal sensitive data.
Finally, around 1 in 20 mailboxes were attacked with QR codes, which are relatively successful as they mostly bypass traditional email filtering solutions. Additionally, they force victims to use a personal device to scan the QR code, which is typically not protected by corporate security software.
Attackers will typically target Gmail users, Barracuda added, as Gmail accounted for 22% of domains used for social engineering. What's more, bit.ly is the go-to tool for URL shortening, used in almost 40% of social engineering attacks.
“IT and security professionals must stay focused on the evolution of email threats and what this means for security measures and incident response,” said Sheila Hara, senior director of product management at Barracuda.
“This involves understanding how attackers can leverage generative AI to advance and scale their activities, and the latest tactics they are using to bypass security controls. The best defense is AI-powered cloud email security technology, which can quickly adapt to a changing landscape and does not rely solely on searching for malicious links or attachments.”
