Mimecast, a leader in advanced email and collaboration security, has announced enhancements to its Quick Response (QR) code protections. This upgrade is part of Mimecast Email Security's latest features, designed to combat the surge in QR code-related cyberattacks, often termed ‘quishing’. With these enhancements, Mimecast aims to provide superior protection for both current and future customers by incorporating deep scanning technology for URLs linked to QR codes, ensuring any malicious content is promptly blocked.
The year 2023 saw a marked increase in the use of QR code attacks by cybercriminals, exploiting them as a vector to direct unsuspecting users to fraudulent sites for credential theft and other nefarious purposes. These 'quishing' attempts have become increasingly sophisticated, leveraging the general public's trust and reliance on QR codes for legitimate activities like accessing restaurant menus, sign-up forms, and other online services. This growing trend underscores the innovative methods threat actors are employing to bypass traditional cybersecurity defenses.
Mimecast's Global Threat Intelligence Report highlights a 22% rise in attacks featuring malicious links in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the preceding quarter. Drawing on the analysis of over one billion emails daily across 42,000 global customers, Mimecast's threat intelligence has identified the embedding of QR codes in emails as a prevalent strategy among cybercriminals to disseminate malicious links.
The newly introduced product enhancements are designed to meticulously identify QR codes within email bodies, extracting and deeply scanning the embedded URLs. This advanced level of 'quishing' protection is geared towards safeguarding employee inboxes, further empowering Mimecast's customer organizations to maintain a secure working environment.
Sean Brady, Mimecast's VP of Product Management, emphasized the critical nature of this threat, stating, “QR code attacks pose a serious and growing threat for organizations worldwide. At Mimecast, we will always innovate to meet our customers' needs, and we are tackling this growing attack vector head-on to keep organizations secure.”
With the activation of deep scanning for QR code URLs in Mimecast Email Security, customers can expect even more robust defenses against 'quishing' in the near future, underscoring Mimecast's commitment to evolving its security solutions in step with emerging cyber threats.