Email threat types: Brand impersonation

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Jan. 26, 2021

Brand impersonation is an attack that impersonates a company or brand to hide the malicious intent of an email. The idea behind it is that a recipient will respond and provide sensitive information on the assumption that the email is from a trusted sender.

Microsoft is the most impersonated brand in spear-phishing attacks. Other commonly impersonated brands include Apple, Netflix, eBay, and PayPal. Barracuda researchers have found that Google-branded attacks account for 65 percent of form-based brand impersonation attacks in 2020

Brand impersonation is one of the threats identified in our free e-book, 13 email threats to know about right now. Get your copy now and learn how to defend against this and other dangerous email threats.

Christine Barry

Christine Barry Senior Chief Cybersecurity Storyteller and Content Manager at Barracuda. Prior to joining Barracuda, Christine was a field engineer and project manager for K12 and SMB clients for over 15 years. She holds several technology and project management credentials, a Bachelor of Arts, and a Master of Business Administration. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

Connect with Christine on LinkedIn here.

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