Anti-phishing Solutions from SECURE COMPUTING®

Phishing Combines Multiple Attack Methods

The security marketplace has come up with many innovative solutions to target individual threat vectors, but in response, attackers have stepped up the pace with blended threats that combine multiple attack methodologies together. Anti-phishing technology plays an important role in your security environment. Phishing is a particularly insidious attack that is complex. It starts with an email, typically one that disguises itself as one from a trusted source, such as a bank. The email then attempts to trick you into clicking on a URL link, which will then take you to a doctored web site which either contains malicious active code, or is disguised to appear as though it is a web site from the same trusted source. The bogus web site may contain an interface that asks you to enter in information such as a password or account number. But instead of going to the legitimate trusted source, the information is sent directly to an attacker, who then takes that information for the purpose of identity theft. Because of the complexity of this type of attack, anti-phishing strategies must go beyond simple virus detection to incorporate multiple prevention methodologies.

Anti-phishing technology can prevent attacks like these from happening, although the most effective anti-phishing strategy is education. When users get wise to the types of attacks that occur, they can be proactive. Always be suspicious of emails that ask for information such as account numbers or passwords. A simple anti-phishing technique is just to hover your mouse above the link to see the true URL. Better yet, if an email asks you to click on a link to be taken to a trusted source, instead, open up your browser and enter in the proper URL manually.

Secure Computing's research detects up to 17,000 phishing attacks every month. Outside of education, Secure Computing's anti-phishing technology is an effective way to keep these emails from even reaching the end user to begin with. Secure Web's (Webwasher) comprehensive content security platform also provides an effective anti-phishing engine, with its rigorous anti-spam technology. Secure Web (Webwasher) contains multiple spam detection methods, which will detect many different types of spam attacks, including phishing attacks. Secure's anti-phishing strategy is also built into its Secure Mail (IronMail) and Secure Mail Edge products.

Secure Computing's anti-phishing strategy combines multiple products to combat this growing problem. Secure Computing's Secure Mail products, including Secure Mail (IronMail) and Secure Mail Edge, provide leading protection against viruses, and the Web gateway line, including Secure Web (Webwasher), offers a combination of solutions designed to protect against dangerous content like phishing emails. And of course, TrustedSource® global reputation technology is incorporated into all Secure Computing appliances. TrustedSource technology is an effective anti-phishing technology, because it analyzes the reputation of all IPs, domains and emails, weeding out most phishing attacks at the gateway before they even get to the user's inbox.

For more information on Secure Computing's Secure Mail Anti-phishing solutions and
Secure Web Anti-phishing solutions, please visit our Anti-phishing pages.