Connect with us

Cyber Security

Check Point Research Reveals Q2 2024 Brand Phishing Trends

Published

on

Check Point Research (CPR), the Threat Intelligence arm of Check Point Software Technologies has released its latest Brand Phishing Ranking for Q2 2024. The ranking highlights the brands most frequently imitated by cybercriminals in their attempts to deceive individuals and steal personal information or payment credentials. For the second quarter this year, Microsoft remained the most imitated brand in phishing attacks, accounting for more than half of all attempts with 57%. Apple jumped to second spot with 10%, moving up from fourth position in the first quarter of 2024, and LinkedIn kept its previous third place ranking with 7% of such attempts. Meanwhile, there were new entries to the list with Adidas, WhatsApp, and Instagram moving into the top 10 for the first time since 2022.

The Technology sector remained the most impersonated industry in brand phishing, followed by Social Networks and Banking. Technology companies often hold sensitive information, including personal data, financial information, and access to other accounts, which makes them valuable targets for attackers. Companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon, who all appeared on the list, deliver essential and frequently used services such as email, cloud storage, and online shopping. That means people are more likely to respond to messages that appear to be from these critical service providers.

Omer Dembinsky, Data Group Manager at Check Point Software, emphasized the persistent threat of phishing attacks, stating, “Phishing attacks remain one of the most pervasive cyber threats and are often the entry point for much larger scale campaigns a supply chain. To protect against phishing attacks, users should always verify the sender’s email address, avoid clicking on unsolicited links, and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on their accounts. Additionally, using security software and keeping it updated can help detect and block phishing attempts.”

Top Phishing brands
Below are the top 10 brands ranked by their overall appearance in brand phishing events during Q2 2024:

Microsoft (57%)
Apple (10%)
LinkedIn (7%)
Google (6%)
Facebook (1.8%)
Amazon (1.6%)
DHL (0.9%)
Adidas (0.8%)
WhatsApp (0.8%)
Instagram (0.7%)

Adidas Phishing Campaigns
Last quarter, Check Point Research observed several phishing campaigns targeting users by impersonating Adidas brand websites. For instance, adidasyeezys[.]cz (Figure 1) and adidasyeezys[.]it (Figure 2) are designed to deceive victims into believing they are authentic Adidas Yeezy sites, closely mimicking the appearance of the legitimate Adidas site at https://news.adidas.com/yeezy. These fraudulent sites aim to lure users into entering their credentials and personal information, exploiting their resemblance to the original site to successfully steal information. Similarly, adidas-ozweego[.]fr (Figure 3) and adidascampus[.]co[.]at (Figure 4) mimic the official Adidas platform.

Furthermore, adidasoriginalss[.]fr currently appears inactive for phishing and instead hosts advertisements.

Instagram Phishing Campaigns
In the last quarter, researchers observed numerous campaigns utilizing the Instagram brand to perpetrate online scams. As a result, Instagram has risen to the 10th position on the list of top brands impacted by phishing, marking its first appearance there since 2022.

In recent months, CPR identified phishing campaigns impersonating Instagram to deceive users into divulging their login credentials. One instance involves a phishing page hosted at instagram-nine-flame].[vercel].[app/login (figure 1), which mimics Instagram’s login interface. This page, hosted on Vercel, a platform for creating React applications, prompts users to enter their usernames and passwords.

Another observed campaign utilized the domain instagram-verify-account].[tk (figure 2). Although currently inactive, it previously displayed a message designed to trick users into entering personal information under the guise of verifying their Instagram accounts. Such tactics aim to exploit trust and deceive users into compromising their credentials.

Cloud

SentinelOne Simplifies Secure Cloud Migrations on AWS

Published

on

SentinelOne today announced its participation in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Workload Migration Program. This initiative supports AWS Partner Network (APN) members with SaaS offerings on AWS to accelerate and streamline workload migrations.

Through the program, SentinelOne will provide AWS customers with accelerated, secure cloud migration support, leveraging modern AI-powered CNAPP capabilities to ensure rapid and protected transitions. With access to AWS funding, technical resources, and go-to-market support, SentinelOne will help organizations reduce migration timelines and costs while maintaining robust security.

SentinelOne’s Singularity Cloud Security delivers real-time visibility and protection throughout the migration journey—whether from on-premises or another cloud—enabling a secure, seamless transition to AWS.

“Through our participation in the AWS ISV Workload Migration Program, SentinelOne is helping customers accelerate secure cloud migrations with end-to-end protection and visibility,” said Ric Smith, President of Product, Technology, and Operations at SentinelOne. “Whether moving from on-prem or another cloud to AWS, organizations can count on us to deliver the security they need throughout their journey—realizing the performance, speed, agility, and cost benefits of the cloud.”

Singularity Cloud Security combines agentless and agent-based protection for deep visibility, continuous posture management, and real-time threat detection across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. By collaborating with AWS and ecosystem partners, SentinelOne ensures seamless integration into migration projects, helping customers move faster, reduce risk, and scale confidently in the cloud.

Availability: SentinelOne’s solutions are available globally.

Continue Reading

Cyber Security

Beyond Blocklists: How Behavioural Intent Analysis Can Safeguard Middle East Businesses from Rising AI-Driven Bot Threats

Published

on

The Middle East is facing an unprecedented surge in AI-driven bot attacks, with malicious automation now outpacing traditional defenses. Mohammad Ismail, Vice President for EMEA at Cequence Security, warns that legacy tools like IP blocklists and rate limiting are no match for today’s sophisticated threats (more…)

Continue Reading

Cyber Security

Sophos Boosts Firewall with New Protection and Incident Response Features

Published

on

Sophos has announced a significant update to its Sophos Firewall software, introducing enhanced protection and incident response capabilities. This update notably includes Sophos NDR Essential, a new feature now available free of charge to all customers holding an XStream Protection license for Sophos Firewall.

This integration empowers Sophos Firewall with two dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) engines specifically designed to detect both malware communications and those utilizing algorithmically generated domain names. This advanced functionality, derived from the Sophos Network Detection and Response (NDR) probe, aims to identify sophisticated malware communications even if they are previously unknown or not yet indexed. It serves as a powerful complement to the Active Threat Response capabilities already embedded within Sophos firewalls.

Chris McCormack, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sophos

Addressing the technical demands of such advanced detection, Chris McCormack, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sophos, explained the strategic approach, “NDR traffic analysis requires substantial processing power. That’s why we’ve adopted a new approach by deploying an NDR solution in Sophos Cloud to offload the heaviest tasks from the firewall.” This cloud-centric design ensures optimal performance without burdening the firewall’s on-device resources.

Beyond network detection, the update also brings significant improvements to connectivity and user authentication. Sophos Connect now integrates EntraID for Single Sign-On (SSO). This new feature for the VPN client, bundled with Sophos Firewall, is set to enhance both the security and user experience for SSL and IPsec VPN connections. The integration with EntraID (Azure AD) enables users to authenticate and leverage multi-factor authentication for both Sophos Connect and access to the user portal hosted by the firewall, streamlining secure access.

Further VPN-related enhancements include:

  • Improved user interface and usability: Connection types have been renamed for greater clarity, with “site-to-site” now referred to as “policy-based” and tunnel interfaces as “route-based,” making configurations more intuitive.
  • Dynamic validation of the IP address pool: For VPN connections (SSL VPN, IPsec, L2TP, and PPTP), the system now dynamically validates the allocated IP address pool, helping to better resolve potential IP address conflicts.
  • Strict profile enforcement: IPsec profiles now exclude default values to ensure algorithm synchronization, effectively eliminating potential fragmentation of session negotiation packets that could otherwise prevent site-to-site VPN tunnels from being established.
  • Route-based VPN and SD-RED scalability: The system has been optimized to support up to 3,000 simultaneously established tunnels. Specifically, Sophos Firewall solutions can now manage up to 1,000 SD-RED site-to-site tunnels and connect up to 650 concurrent SD-RED devices.

Additional management improvements enhance administrative flexibility and search capabilities:

  • More flexible DHCP Prefix Delegation (IPv6 DHCP-PD): The system now supports a broader range of prefixes, from /48 to /64, improving compatibility with various internet service providers.
  • Router Advertisement (RA) and DHCPv6 server: These features are now enabled by default, simplifying IPv6 network setup.
  • Resizable table columns: The web admin interface continues its adaptation for ultra-wide screens, with many configuration pages now allowing users to resize columns as needed for improved usability.
  • Enhanced object search functionality: The search field within the SD-WAN routing configuration screen now supports more granular criteria, including route name, ID, objects, and object values like IP addresses and domains. Similarly, local ACL rules now also support object name and value searches, extending to content-based searches for more precise results.
  • Default configuration changes: To streamline initial setups, default firewall rules and rule groups previously created during new firewall deployments have been removed. The initial configuration now only includes the default network rule and MTA rules. Furthermore, the default firewall rule group and the default gateway probe for custom gateways are now set to “None” by default.

Sophos continues its commitment to cybersecurity through a “Secure by Design” approach, enhancing the intrinsic security of its firewalls. This methodology involves the containerization of specific features and rigorous integrity checks on critical operating system files using mathematical checksums. Any detected checksum mismatch triggers a potential compromise alert, enabling monitoring teams to proactively identify possible security incidents affecting the firewall OS integrity. This proactive detection allows incident response and development teams to react swiftly to critical security events.

This update is now available for manual download and deployment by customers with any Sophos Firewall equipped with a valid license.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Follow Us

Trending

Copyright © 2021 Security Review Magazine. Rysha Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.