Phishing isn’t anything new. It’s been a tried and true threat for nearly 30 years. Its age, however, doesn’t diminish its seriousness.
Phishing By the Numbers
Actually, 2023 marked a significant growth in phishing attacks, mainly due to the rise in large language models and AI being used for nefarious purposes. For example:
- Since Q4 2022, there’s been a 1,265% increase in malicious phishing messages (SlashNext)
- On average, 31,000 phishing attacks are sent per day (SlashNext)
- This year saw a 967% increase in credential phishing (SlashNext)
- An estimated 3.4 billion spam emails are sent daily (AAG)
- 36% of all data breaches involved phishing (Verizon 2023 DBIR)
Enter Hyperautomation
What is hyperautomation’s role in phishing defense? Torq integrates with several key partners to offer use cases that can help organizations prevent, protect against, and understand phishing attacks and avoid costly data breaches – which AAG estimates can cost an organization more than $4 million on average. Here we look at six use cases where hyperautomation aids in fighting phishing.
Secure Email Gateways (SEGs)
Torq partners with Secure Email Gateway providers to enhance their detection accuracy and response by correlating data across SEG solutions, like Abnormal Security, Microsoft, Proofpoint, Mimecast, and more. Torq autonomously initiates remediation actions, such as removing malicious emails or adjusting email security controls to protect against phishing attacks.
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
Working with EDR providers like Crowdstrike, SentinelOne, Microsoft, and others, Torq can correlate endpoint data for a holistic view of a phishing attack’s scope and impact, triggering automatic malware scans and coordinating with the EDR solution for threat removal and system restoration.
Data Loss Identification and Prevention
Two key things an organization must do following a phishing attack is evaluating the scope and scale of data loss, and ensuring that they adhere to regulatory compliance with the appropriate notifications and reporting. Torq partners with Data Loss Identification and Prevention providers like Microsoft, Crowdstrike, Varonis, and Symantec to automate these two important pieces of the phishing puzzle.
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) and Identity Access Management (IAM)
Proactive measures are imperative to protect against phishing. One way Torq does this is by analyzing cloud-based user and entity behaviors to detect anomalies that could be indicative of phishing.
And if a phishing attack does occur, Torq partners with IAMs to automatically disable compromised credentials to halt unauthorized access across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments; and automate the reset process for compromised credentials to expedite resolution.
Key integrations to achieve this include Okta, Active Directory, JumpCloud, OneLogin, Ping, and Wiz.
User Reporting and Security Awareness
Chatbots have become a key component in both reporting potential phishing attempts and educating users on what to look for to prevent falling victim. Chatbots provide an easy and immediate interface for users to report suspicious emails by integrating with an organization’s communication tools, such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, email, and others. Chatbots can also execute automated actions such as resetting passwords, revoking access, or initiating scans for malware, with the option for human-in-the-loop authorization. Chatbots can also provide educational resources and coaching to users on how to avoid phishing and other future compromises and to improve their cybersecurity awareness.
Security Operations Metrics for Continuous Improvement
Understanding the metrics after the fact can help prevent a phishing attack in the future. Torq partners with SIEM, SEG, and EDR providers to evaluate response times and effectiveness of automated workflows in handling phishing attacks, and to provide insights to continually improve security posture against phishing and other threats. Torq Hyperautomation also prioritizes and categorizes incidents using LLMs to automatically create cases based on severity, impact, and other predefined criteria to ensure rapid response to critical threats.
Through Torq’s limitless integrations, our platform can connect to and automate any security tool, meaning we can integrate with nearly any modern solution on the market to help understand phishing threats and automate the response to them.
Want to see the Torq Hyperautomation platform in action? Request a demo.
