Sandboxing Link Isolation: A Powerful Solution to Neutralize Malicious URLs
Could sandboxing link isolation be the answer to malicious URLs?
Isolating malicious links and attachments in a sandbox environment allows you to develop and test low-risk applications safely. In addition, sandboxing catches and quarantines evasive, harmful email content and associated attachments, discusses Oliver Paterson, product director of VIPRE Security Group.
Sandboxing protects organizations from phishing, viruses, and malware using advanced technology to quarantine harmful email attachments that can evade other antivirus or anti-spam software. Such solutions also identify new malware and viruses that have never been seen before the email reaches an inbox. Using link isolation, IT teams can detect how a link behaves in the sandbox environment using an isolated browser not connected to the network.
It scans the site against known malicious website lists and AV engines and follows the link to its destination path. In addition, machine learning and heuristic engines look for zero-day and polymorphic threats that are otherwise undiscoverable with traditional signature-based scanning techniques. Therefore, you get deeper and more complete protection.
Emails Are a Company’s Lifeblood, But There are Risks
While emails are vitally important to business communication, there are risks. Cybercriminals are developing more sophisticated attacks daily to scam distracted users. Emails are still a scammer’s primary attack vector for cyber threats. According to Verizon’s 2022 DBIR, 82% of data breaches involve a human element, including phishing and the use of stolen credentials. This figure is supported by research from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), whose most recent Internet Crime Report found that phishing is the most prevalent threat in the US.
And ransomware is also a rapidly growing threat category that can affect your entire network. It can restrict access to files, devices, servers or even take an entire network offline. This results in significant productivity, financial and reputational losses.
Cybercrime is still big business, with larger players attacking companies of all sizes using email as their route in. The traditional methods for blocking known bad URLs and sandboxing attached files are no longer suitable for these increasingly sophisticated attacks.
Most businesses need more time or resources to address these evolving threats, leaving them exposed both legally and financially. School systems, municipalities, and small and medium-sized companies are the primary targets because their security holes leave them ripe for exploitation.
Find the Right Tools to Fight Back
Email attacks can threaten your organization and end users. Hence, businesses need the right tools to deliver protection on the front end to fight threats and educate users on how to improve overall security.
A solid email isolation tool defends your email, users, and business with potent capabilities designed to neutralize cyberattacks through email. Using a tool that sees through cyber attackers’ tricks, such as authentic logos and branding is important, but educating your users to see through the same tactics is a perfect example of “layered cyber security.”. By neutralizing these threats and educating the users, the attacks become useless if they should reach your inbox.
Malicious URLs cannot automatically launch a threat and compromise your device, network, or users when the proper tools are used to neutralize them.
When links are rewritten, you are protected against cases where even legitimate websites have been compromised, something not all products can detect. A deep scan can reveal hidden and embedded components to ensure a message’s validity. This scan can comprehend an entire chain, from the inbox back to linked web servers or services.
While cloud sandboxes are not new, many security products can only handle email file attachments. Instead, when sandboxing, consider a tool that extends the reach and impact of the cloud sandbox to isolate an entire message, including all URLs in an email message.
IT departments are challenged as cybercrime expands and becomes more sophisticated, launching new ‘hacking-as-a-service’ in conjunction with phishing-embedded emails. However, they can only stay on top of known vectors or methods, the zero-day threats are much harder to protect against.
Link isolation is a powerful security tool that rewrites all links, sandboxes URLs and landing pages, intercepts click-throughs, and provides live feedback on threats. This prevents zero-day attacks from infiltrating your system.
Half the Battle Is Education
There must be more than intelligent tools to solve the email safety problem. Human behavior and user error can have a detrimental effect on overall security. So, you must also address the human side of email security as a potential point of failure.
A good system immediately blocks a page when a user clicks on a suspicious link and can be used as training scenarios to better educate the user about the threat and the cybersecurity issues that could have ensued as a result. This helps inform the user and diminishes the probability they will be susceptible in the future. All Security Awareness training is not created equal; employees could watch an educational phishing video to drive the lesson home, yet great eLearning solutions actually increase the efficacy of a training program by ensuring employee engagement and can improve your organization’s security posture.
The key is to find a powerful tool for fighting against both the technological and human elements of cybersecurity. A solution that is streamlined and straightforward to use and helps to protect your employees against any attack cybercriminals might throw your way.
How are you fighting malicious URLs? Share your thoughts and strategies on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We’d love to know!
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