A report from Darktrace has found that 62% of phishing emails in the first half of 2024 were able to bypass DMARC verification checks in order to reach users’ inboxes.
“Building on the insights from the 2023 End of Year Threat Report, an analysis of malicious emails detected by Darktrace / EMAIL in 2024 underscores the implication that email threats are increasingly capable of circumventing conventional email security tools,” the report says.
“Notably, 62% of the 17.8 million phishing emails identified by Darktrace successfully bypassed Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) verification checks.”
Additionally, nearly 40% of phishing attempts in the first half of 2024 were targeted, indicating that threat actors are investing more effort into tailoring their attacks. The researchers also observed an increase in attacks that impersonated brands or VIPs.
“More interestingly still, in May and June alone, Darktrace identified 540,000 brand impersonation attempts (malicious email actors attempting to masquerade as trusted and reputable organizations to deceive recipients) and a further 240,000 emails attempting to impersonate a VIP at an organization.
"This trend towards impersonation and deception under the guise of a trusted company, or even a company executive, suggests threat actors are curating more bespoke and targeted email campaigns intended to target select organizations, or even individuals, more efficiently than traditional mass phishing attacks.”
Notably, Darktrace observed a 59% increase in multistage phishing attacks, which “elicit recipients to follow a series of steps, such as clicking a link or scanning a QR code, before delivering a payload or attempting to harvest credentials.” Since these attacks are more complex, they can more easily evade detection by security tools.
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