Proofpoint Stops Impostor Emails with Industry’s Only Dynamic Fraud Protection

New dynamic classification ensures organizations worldwide are quickly protected from socially-engineered impostor emails, also known as business email compromise (BEC) or CEO fraud

SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 12, 2016 -- Proofpoint, Inc., (NASDAQ:PFPT), a leading next-generation cybersecurity company, today announced the immediate availability of a new impostor email classification to help organizations stop fraudulent messages that trick employees into sending money and confidential information to cybercriminals. Added to the flagship Proofpoint Email Protection product, this dynamic classifier and quarantine functionality allows administrators to quickly see, report and stop this attack technique.

According to the FBI, attackers used impostor emails to steal more than two billion dollars over the last two years. Impostor email attacks, which surged more than 270 percent in 2015, are well-crafted requests that impersonate senior leadership. Proofpoint research uncovered nearly 50 percent of impostor emails target the CFO and 25 percent hit human resources inboxes. Thirty percent of impostor email subject lines request employee tax information, 21 percent convey an urgency to act and 20 percent ask for wire transfers.

“Impostor email attacks are different than most cyberattacks in that there is no malware or link to analyze,” said Ryan Kalember, senior vice president of Cybersecurity Strategy for Proofpoint. “Stopping these threats requires both the right policies and a dynamic approach that incorporates all the potential indicators of an impostor email. Our new capability automatically detects fraudulent email patterns, blocks messages and is easy to deploy.”

The new impostor email classifier is available today at no charge for Proofpoint Email Protection customers. Today’s announcement builds on Proofpoint Email Protection’s ability to integrate inbound email security, with outbound filtering and encryption, secure file share, and ensure email continuity. Every day Proofpoint analyzes more than one billion email messages to protect customers from advanced threats.

For more information on Proofpoint Email Protection, please click here. For impostor email protection tips, please visit www.proofpoint.com/us/bec-tips 

About Proofpoint, Inc.
Proofpoint Inc. (NASDAQ:PFPT) is a leading next-generation security and compliance company that provides cloud-based solutions for comprehensive threat protection, incident response, secure communications, social media and mobile security, compliance, archiving and governance. Organizations around the world depend on Proofpoint’s expertise, patented technologies and on-demand delivery system. Proofpoint protects against phishing, malware and spam, while safeguarding privacy, encrypting sensitive information, and archiving and governing messages and critical enterprise information. More information is available at www.proofpoint.com. 

Proofpoint is a registered trademark of Proofpoint, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Patricia Hogan
Proofpoint, Inc.
408-763-3863
[email protected]