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Barracuda research finds one in five HTML email attachments found to be malicious
ew research conducted
N by Barracuda Networks , a leading provider of cloud-first security solutions , has found that HTML attachments are by far the most used by cybercriminals for malicious purposes .
The company ’ s analysis of millions of email attachments over the past month revealed that one in five HTML attachments were malicious . By comparison , a meagre 0.03 % and 0.009 % of MS Office and PDF files respectively that were sent via the scanned emails were found to be malicious .
“ HTML attachments have become ubiquitous in email communications as they ’ re commonly used for systemgenerated reports , updates and notifications . They often include hyperlinks which users have become accustomed to clicking without first checking to see the full URL ,” said Toni El Inati , RVP Sales , META and CEE , Barracuda Networks .
“ It ’ s no surprise then that attackers have been quick to exploit this trust . Moreover , these attachments mean that attackers no longer need to place malicious links in the body of the email and therefore allow them to bypass traditional anti-spam and anti-virus policies with ease .”
In analysing the modus-operandi of the cybercriminals perpetrating these attacks , Barracuda ’ s experts found credential phishing and malware to be primarily motives . The research revealed that attackers commonly embed links to phishing or malicious websites within their HTML attachments .
Meeting the hidden cost of strong customer authentication ( SCA )
ioCatch , a global leader in
B behavioural biometrics , and
Goode Intelligence , have released a report highlighting the challenges and potential improvements of strong customer authentication ( SCA ) implementation across the EU .
According to the European Banking Authority ( EBA ), fraud rates have fallen for issuers because of high SCA compliance adoption , with the average value of fraudulent card transactions falling by 50 % from June 2020 to April 2021 . However , the decreasing fraud rates have come at a cost , with EuroCommerce , Microsoft and CMSPI all citing an increase in customer abandonment rates . Indeed , CMSPI reported a 30 % rise in abandonments , estimated to have cost merchants £ 74 billion in lost sales .
Beyond Compliance : Comply and Thrive in a PSD2 World from Goode Intelligence shows that to reverse the trend of declining customer experience , banks and payment services providers are turning to behavioural biometrics . Analysing behaviour has become integral to fighting fraud , remaining SCA-compliant and mitigating implementation problems that lead to cart abandonment . www . intelligentciso . com
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