What Are Targeted Email Attacks on Businesses?

Targeted email attacks on businesses, like spear phishing, whaling, and business email compromise (BEC), are skillfully crafted messages written to trick specific employees within an organization into revealing critical information to unauthorized people. By impersonating executives or typically trusted sources, such as IT admins, malicious actors aim to steal credentials, authorize fraudulent payments, or extract sensitive data for financial gain.

When it comes to enterprise security, these attacks are more than merely obnoxious spam. A targeted email attack can lead to business email compromise, which can tarnish a brand's reputation, lose stakeholder trust, and leave room for larger breaches.

When it comes to enterprise security, these attacks are more than merely obnoxious spam. A targeted email attack can lead to business email compromise, which can tarnish a brand's reputation, lose stakeholder trust, and leave room for larger breaches.

With increasingly intricate targeted email attacks, technology leaders must prioritize email security efforts to minimize risks and protect their business data. Here, we'll discuss some practical tips for recognizing common attacks, as well as how to detect and defend against these external threats.

Are you curious how your email security measures up? Review your security program now and discover our advanced Email Resilience solution to help you mitigate email-based threats.

Recognizing the Most Common Targeted Email Attacks

The first step to securing an enterprise is understanding how attackers craft these malicious messages. Typically, threat actors leverage psychology and manipulation tactics to deceive unsuspecting targets.

Some of the most common targeted email attack tactics include the following.

• Business Email Compromise (BEC): Impersonates executives and/or known third-party vendors to trick employees into initiating wire transfers or sharing sensitive information.
• Spear Phishing: Tailors emails for specific employees using personal or organizational details, which give an authentic appearance.
• Lookalike Domain Attacks: Leverages a visually similar domain name to the real one, like “compamy.com" instead of "company.com”, which is easy to overlook.
• Malicious Attachments and Links: Uses emails with attached files or links that install malware or steal information upon click.
• Thread Hijacking: Replies in an ongoing email thread and continues with a similar context and tone to add malicious links or change payment instructions.
• Targeted Chat Attacks: Simulates messaging platforms (like Slack or Teams) to extract data or push malware.

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One of the most-known targeted email attacks is the 2013 Target Corporation breach, where attackers compromised credentials through a third-party vendor. This breach led to the exposure of millions of customer records, cost the company over $200 million, and significant brand damage and backlash.

It’s easy to say your team wouldn’t fall victim to these schemes, but it is essential to provide targeted email attack training for all internal employees and third-party vendors to make them aware of what type of email messages are used by cyber attackers to target high-level management.

For instance, malicious actors often leverage lookalike domains like “Taget.com” instead of “Target.com” in combination with an executive email such as executivefirstandlastname@taget.com to send emails with a fraudulent file share with the intention of corrupting their computer and potentially infrastructure, or more. These emails often appear legitimate as they typically include a deceptive signature with the executive’s personal information and even a picture to trick employees into believing their higher-ups sent the email and they should follow the requested actions.

As these threats become more unpredictable and frequent, they can be overwhelming — especially when you have limited visibility or legacy tools. Having a regularly updated email security program in place will ease anxiety and ensure your security is top-notch in defending against the most sophisticated attacks.

Pro Tip: Be sure to check external signals beyond the typical internal filters, including domains and profiles, to protect your brand from all angles.

Want deeper security insights? Learn about social engineering attack tactics, their impact on businesses, and how to prevent these deceptive tactics with proactive measures.

Proactive Detection Beyond the Inbox

Knowing the latest targeted email attacks is one thing, but brand protection must expand beyond your email perimeter. Enterprises must proactively monitor internal systems and infrastructure for fake websites, impersonated domains, and fraudulent social media profiles to keep intruders out.

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External signal monitoring and AI-driven scanning, such as those in Doppel's platform, empower technology leaders and their teams to detect external threats early by identifying suspicious domain registrations, cloned landing pages, or lookalike social handles for attack prevention before they reach employees or customers.

As mentioned, security teams should also provide targeted email attack training for all employees and partners to expand the team's efforts in detecting and reporting any threats.

Key Action Steps

When creating a proactive detection plan, consider these actionable steps:

1. Use AI to recognize suspicious domain spoofing and brand impersonation attempts early.

2. Continuously monitor digital and social channels to identify fake pages or malicious redirects.

3. Regularly audit your company’s external digital footprint using advanced security tools.

Sadly, securing email gateways alone won’t cover your external assets. You’ll need a scalable, leading-edge defense strategy that can constantly evolve as threats do. If your website gets spoofed as a phishing page, and your customers click it, they will be at risk, and the trust you worked so hard to earn can dissolve instantly.

That doesn’t have to be the case. With outward-focused protection strategies, your brand and customers can stay protected. Check out our Email Resilience datasheet for detailed insights and strategies for protecting business email systems against targeted threats.

Implementing a Multi-Layered Defense for Long-Term Security

Adding a layered defense approach that considers people, processes, and technology will be your strongest line of defense. By providing ongoing, role-specific training, executive-focused protection, and quick AI remediation, like the features in our comprehensive cybersecurity platform, you’ll have more holistic protection and faster mitigation.

Do’s and Don’ts

Do

• Implement consistent, tailored security training for employees to help recognize threats.
• Automate domain and social monitoring and takedown before attackers exploit them.
• Use AI and machine learning-based threat detection to identify patterns and anomalies.
• Check SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configurations regularly for spoofed domains.

Don’t

• Rely solely on built-in spam filters. Leverage external intelligence to close gaps.
• Forget to protect high-profile individuals. Use solutions like our Executive Protection services.
• Treat email security as a one-and-done type of fix. It requires maintenance.
• Overlook simulated attack drills and mock phishing simulations for training.

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Utilizing these tactics and brand protection tools like Doppel, can reduce targeted email threats and lead to fewer successful phishing incidents with overall cost savings. For example, an L.A. Real Estate Firm switched to Doppel, where the firm doubled its platform coverage with a 5.5x improvement in takedown speed fueled by better and more comprehensive detections and seamless service delivery.

With their previous vendor, the firm experienced a 37% takedown rate with social media takedowns and a timeframe for successful takedowns that ranged from six to 20 weeks. Doppel, on the other hand, averaged a 76% takedown rate, 22 days takedown time on X, less than 5 days average on Facebook, and less than 15 days on TikTok.

Interested in a more well-rounded security program to take down attackers fast? Explore our strategies to prevent social engineering.

Conclusion

Staying ahead of targeted email attacks requires early detection, external monitoring, and layered defenses for the best defense and long-term resilience.

Protect what matters to you. Be proactive and schedule a quick consultation with our team to see how our AI early warning signals can connect the dots and reinforce your email security.