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FireEye Unveils Epidemic of Malware-Less Email Attacks

FireEye Unveils Epidemic of Malware-Less Email Attacks

FireEye Unveils Epidemic of Malware-Less Email Attacks

Yesterday, endpoint protection platform provider FireEye released the results of their Email Threat Report. This report used a sample set of over half a billion emails sent between January 2018 and June 2018 from around the globe. Their results indicate a rise in malware-less email attacks, threatening enterprise perimeters and network security.

Download Link to Gartner 2018 Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms

According to FireEye, only 32% of emails sent in 1H 2018 were “clean” and actually delivered to an inbox. Simultaneously, 1 in 101 emails carried malware or had a malicious motive. FireEye also discovered:

  • 90% of attacks blocked during analysis were malware-less.
  • 81% of blocked malware-less email attacks were phishing attacks.
  • Malware-less email attacks were most likely to occur on Thursdays. They were also more common on the weekend than malware-based attacks.

Malware-less emails attacks were born out of hackers’ need to subvert or bypass traditional endpoint protection platforms. Instead of downloading a malicious file a la malware, a malware-less attack will use a computer’s own native processes to disguise their actions. Without a file to scan, malware-less email attacks avoid traditional detection methods. Additionally, by hiding the malicious code in a native process, the malware-less attack is considered “white-labeled” by the system.

You can read more about the FireEye Email Threat Report and malware-less email attacks here. You can also read about the rise of fileless malware attacks here.   

Other Resources: 

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Download Link to Endpoint Security Buyer's Guide

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