Tip - Be Wary of Malicious URLs

Secure email from malicious links leading to compromise.

There has been a 600% increase in phishing campaigns due to the pandemic, and the majority of these attacks rely on malicious URLs to steal credentials or deliver malware. Research reveals that one in 10 employees will click on a malicious link - and just one wrong click can have serious consequences including account compromise, data theft, lost productivity and severe, lasting reputational harm.

How Can I Protect Against Malicious URLs?

HTML email allows users to hover over a link to view its destination, a security best practice that we strongly recommend you engage in. That being said, implementing malicious URL protection is the most reliable way to avoid malicious links. 

Many security solutions rely on URL rewriting to detect malicious links; however, this strategy can provide users with a false sense of security - often doing more harm than good. The process of URL rewriting may be understood by IT professionals, but many users are under the impression that any ‘Safe’ link is indeed safe - although this is often not the case. Thus, URL rewriting can actually have the unintended side effect of increasing the likelihood of users clicking on malicious links.

To eliminate this ‘hidden’ risk, we suggest you choose a solution that detects and blocks malicious URLs by comparing domains and hosts against common blocklists, scanning destination websites in real-time to determine if they are malicious or safe and conducting a dynamic analysis of all files, preventing emails containing malicious URLs and attachments from reaching the intended recipient and causing potential harm.

Want to learn more about how to protect against malicious URLS? Get in Touch>>