Mimecast Targeted Threat Protection Service Protects Enterprise from Spear Phishing Attacks

Mimecast, a cloud email security provider, unveiled a new service which ensures optimum protection to enterprises from spear phishing. The new Targeted Threat Protection service is designed to thwart spear phishing attacks. The solution will be available July, 2014.

Orlando Scott-Cowley, director of technology marketing, Mimecast said, “Spear phishing is a new frontline in the battle to protect enterprise systems and data. The threats to an end-users’ inbox are constantly changing and have moved far beyond the daily barrage of spam and virus content on their work desktop.”

These are targeted attacks that use embedded malicious URLs or links sent in emails. If a user clicks on these links, then their system and the organization’s entire security system gets compromised.

The Mimecast Targeted Threat Protection solution scans all URLs that are received in inbound email when an end-user clicks on any link, in order to ensure that the site visited is safe. Otherwise the user will receive a warning automatically besides being blocked from viewing the link.

This protection can be delivered on all devices on which a user accesses his/her enterprise email account including smartphones and tablets, both personal devices and those provided in office.

IT administrators can easily manage this solution from a single administration console. IT and security personnel will also get full logging and visibility of blocked links and sites so that they can enhance their ongoing threat management and reporting tasks. This also helps them guide end-users on how to avoid risky online behavior.

The Mimecast solution protects users’ work on various devices as according to IT teams; the end-users form a weak security link and are often specifically targeted to get access to critical systems and valuable corporate data.

Although most external attacks on email gateways are mitigated, sometimes an innocent click on a link can compromise the entire enterprise security structure. A traditional Web scanning solution cannot protect if the link is accessed from a mobile or personal device.

However, Mimecast optimizes security scanning or gateway services making traditional spam or phishing attacks on enterprise systems impossible. This has instigated attackers to upgrade techniques and resort to spear phishing emails. These emails are based on social engineering reconnaissance to make links look authentic but instead, lead to malware and the loss of critical information and financial loss.