Protection against email attacks: solutions from Trend Micro

Gusztáv Krékity

Email Compromise (BEC) attacks are among the most dangerous cyber threats, often bypassing traditional security systems by using personalized, deceptive emails. This article explores the challenges of defending against BEC attacks and highlights how Trend Micro’s advanced solutions, like AI-based detection, Writing Style DNA, and sandboxing, help organizations effectively identify and prevent these sophisticated threats.

Business Email Compromise (BEC), i.e. compromising business email accounts, is one of the most dangerous and costly cyber threats affecting companies worldwide in recent years. The essence of BEC attacks is that attackers send deceptive emails that appear to be coming from a trusted source and have various purposes, such as requesting the recipient to transfer money to a fraudulent bank account. Since these attacks often do not contain malicious attachments or links that would make them easy to identify, defense is particularly difficult. This article presents the challenges of defending against BEC attacks and describes how Trend Micro's advanced solutions help detect and prevent these attacks.

Challenges of BEC Attacks

Personalization of Attacks and Deception

A special feature of BEC attacks is that they are often highly personalised. Attackers conduct thorough research on the target organization, its managers, financial situation, and other relevant information. They then send emails that appear to come from a trusted source such as a company executive or an important business partner. As these emails do not contain suspicious links or attachments, they are often not detected by traditional security systems.

Techniques and Tactics Used by Attackers

Attackers often use the technique of “spoofing” in which email addresses and display names are changed to look like they are from a legitimate source. Another common method is “social engineering” whereby attackers use psychological manipulation to trick the victim into sharing confidential information or making financial transactions. These types of attacks are particularly dangerous, as they rely not only on bypassing security systems but also on deceiving people.

Limitations of Traditional Security Solutions

Traditional email security solutions, such as spam filters, virus scanners and heuristic analysers, are often insufficient to detect BEC attacks. These systems mostly look for malicious code, links or attachments in the email content but these elements are often missing in BEC attacks. Because of this, BEC attacks can go undetected until the damage is done.

Trend Micro's Advanced Solutions Against BEC Attacks

In light of the growing threat of BEC attacks, Trend Micro, one of the leading cyber security companies, has developed advanced solutions to effectively detect and prevent BEC attacks.

Trend Micro Writing Style DNA

One of the most innovative solutions is "Writing Style DNA”, which is based on the analysis of the writing style of emails. The tool uses machine learning to build a profile of each user's writing style, which includes sentence structure, vocabulary, and use of phrases. When an incoming email deviates from the typical writing style, the system issues a warning to alert the user to question the message’s authenticity. This solution can be particularly effective in cases where attackers are trying to communicate on behalf of a senior executive.

AI-based Email Security Systems

Trend Micro's advanced AI-based email security systems can automatically analyse incoming emails and filter out potentially suspicious messages. AI algorithms look not only at content but also at metadata such as email headers, sending time and source. These systems are constantly learning and adapting to the latest attack techniques, so they are also able to prevent previously unknown threats.

Sandboxing and Emulation

Trend Micro's solutions also use sandboxing, which allows emails to be tested in a secure environment without compromising the actual user's device. The email is run in a virtual environment where the system observes its behaviour during emulation. If the system detects an anomaly, such as suspicious network traffic or unauthorized operations, it blocks the message and warns the user.

Trend Micro Email Security Solution

The Trend Micro Email Security Solution provides comprehensive protection against BEC attacks by combining the aforementioned technologies in a single integrated system. The email security solution can prevent damage caused by malicious URLs, attachments and spoofed emails as well as ensure continuous protection of users against the latest threats. The Email Security Solution offers advanced layers of protection that significantly reduce the success rate of BEC attacks.

BEC attacks pose a serious threat to companies because they are highly sophisticated and difficult to detect. The techniques and tactics used by attackers are becoming increasingly complex, and traditional security solutions are often insufficient to protect against them. However, Trend Micro has advanced defence capabilities that significantly increase the effectiveness of detecting and preventing BEC attacks. The use of AI and machine learning, Writing Style DNA, and sandboxing technology all help companies better protect themselves against these dangerous attacks. As cybercriminals are constantly trying new ways to outwit security systems, the defense must also constantly evolve to keep up with the threats.