monday.com Impersonator Sends Fake HR Update in Likely-AI Generated Phishing Attack
In this likely AI-generated phishing attack, cybercriminals send an email from a spoofed address impersonating monday.com, a popular project management platform, to deceive recipients with a fake HR update. The email, purportedly sent by “HR OFFICE”, falsely claims to share a critical update regarding the company's employee code of conduct, with specific mentions of disciplinary and misconduct issues. The message contains impersonated monday.com branding and urges the recipient to review the updated code of conduct using the provided link. However, the link destination is actually a malicious page, which has been obfuscated using a URL shortener. Should the target click the link and visit the page, any information they enter will be stolen by the attacker.
Older, legacy email security tools struggle to accurately identify this email as an attack because it is sent from a spoofed email address, employs the use of a legitimate link, and lacks malicious attachments. Modern, AI-powered email security solutions flag that the sender is unknown to the recipient, detect links to suspicious domains, and recognize that the reply-to address does not match the sender’s address to correctly identify the email as an attack.
How Does This Attack Bypass Email Defenses?
This email attack bypasses traditional security solutions for multiple reasons, including the following:
- Spoofed Email Address: The attacker spoofs a legitimate-sounding email address, bypassing basic email verification checks and adding perceived authenticity.
- Legitimate Link: The link redirects through a link shortener website, which can pass basic link verification checks due to its seemingly legitimate structure.
- Absence of Malicious Attachments: The email avoids including attachments, which can be easily flagged by antivirus systems, and instead uses a suspicious link to evade detection.
How Did Abnormal Detect This Attack?
This attack was detected using AI and ML by analyzing various factors, including the following:
- Unknown Sender Consideration: The email is recognized as coming from an unknown sender who has never communicated with the recipient. Abnormal’s platform maintains a communication history and quickly flags deviations from established sender-recipient interaction patterns.
- Suspicious Link Analysis: Abnormal's systems scrutinize the presence of links leading to suspicious domains, triggering deeper analysis for possible malicious intent.
- Spoofed Reply-To Address: The email's Reply-To address differs from the sender’s address, indicating possible spoofing and raising red flags.
By recognizing established normal behavior and detecting these abnormal indicators, a modern email security solution has the ability to prevent this attack from reaching inboxes.
Please note the exact detection mechanism from Abnormal Security's system might include proprietary techniques and methodologies not disclosed here.