Barracuda Networks launches new version of email threat scanner

Barracuda Networks, a provider of cloud-enabled security solutions, announced a redesigned version of the Barracuda Email Threat Scanner.

Barracuda Email Threat Scanner is a free tool that claims to help businesses detect email threats getting past their email gateway. These threats include highly targeted attacks, including spear phishing, business email compromise, conversation hijacking, and service impersonation, among many others.

According to the official report by the company, in 2020, 4,550 organizations used Barracuda Email Threat Scanner to scan 2,600,531 unique mailboxes. They found 2,029,413 unique attacks.

On an average, 512 attacks were found per organisation, and one out of 7 mailboxes (14 per cent) 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. These include 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 per cent).

Meanwhile, 39 per cent of the attacks were scamming followed by 9 per cent of extortion attacks and 8 per cent of BEC attacks, which were less prevalent. Cybercriminals tend to send these types of attacks in smaller volumes because they are highly personalized.

New version

Now, the redesigned Barracuda Email Threat Scanner comes with a new feature that provides a report on attacks found inside the environment, as well as at-risk domains and employees. This can help organisations identify gaps in existing email protection and assess email security vulnerabilities.

The updated version comes with a scan preview page, which allows users to monitor their scan’s progress while the scan is running. It also has access to early results, improved dashboard reporting of detected threats.

Speaking on the redefined Email Threat Scanner, Murali Urs, Country Manager-India, Barracuda Networks, said, “In 2021, we foresee the threat landscape to become more challenging and sophisticated attackers will continue to take advantage of the widespread discussion on Covid 19, which indicates that spear-phishing threats will become more dangerous than ever.”

He added: “While organisations have invested in protection against email threats, many of these attacks seep through gateways, landing on users’ inboxes. The attack numbers prove that traditional email gateways are not enough, and customers should also use API-based inbox defenses to maximize their protection.”