Barracuda Revamps Email Threat Scanner

Barracuda has announced a redesigned version of the Barracuda Email Threat Scanner, a free tool that helps businesses detect email threats that got past their email gateway. These threats include highly targeted attacks such as spear phishing, business email compromise, conversation hijacking and services impersonation, among many others.

Each scan provides a report on attacks found inside the environment, as well as at-risk domains and employees. This helps organisations identify gaps in existing email protection and assess email security vulnerabilities.

The refreshed Barracuda Email Threat Scanner brings a complete user interface update to the scanner’s dashboard. This includes:

• A scan preview page, which allows users to monitor their scan’s progress while the scan is running.
• Access to early results as Email Threat Scanner scans mailboxes and finds attacks.
• Improved dashboard reporting of detected threats, making it easier to hone in on specific insights and interpret the findings.
• A 14-day free trial of Barracuda Sentinel can now be launched directly from the scanner, giving customers a chance to experience the benefits of ongoing protection.

In 2020, 4,550 organisations used Barracuda Email Threat Scanner to scan 2,600,531 unique mailboxes and found 2,029,413 unique attacks. On average, 512 attacks were found per organisation, and one out of 7 mailboxes (14%) had at least one attack currently sitting inside, even if messages were scanned by an email gateway solution.

The attacks detected fall into four email threat types: phishing, scamming, extortion, and business email compromise (BEC). Of the 2,029,413 unique attacks detected, phishing was the number one threat missed by the organisations’ email security solutions (59%). Scamming was the second most common (39%). Extortion (9%) and BEC (8%) were less prevalent, but cybercriminals tend to send these types of attacks in smaller volumes because they are highly personalised.

“Spear phishing threats are more dangerous than ever due to the sophistication of attackers, and while organisations have invested in protection against email threats, many of these attacks slip through gateways, landing in users’ inboxes,” said Don MacLennan, SVP, Engineering & Product Management, Email Protection, Barracuda, Barracuda. “As these numbers show, traditional email gateways are not enough. Customers should also use API-based inbox defenses to maximise their protection.”

Barracuda Sentinel integrates directly into Office 365 to find threats inside your mail system that security gateways can’t see, according to the company.