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Threat Hub

The Proofpoint threat research team has access to the one of the largest, most diverse data sets in all of cybersecurity. We’re bringing you the highlights every week, right here at the Threat Hub.

| Weekly Brief

Threat Hub Takeover: Human Factor 2022 examines email, cloud and mobile threats in a year when cyber crime jumped from tech page to front page.

This week on The Threat Hub: In this issue, we're focusing on the release of our annual Human Factor report. The 2022 edition of Human Factor draws on insights and data from our global customer base, and provides a people-centric perspective on twelve months of headline-grabbing threats. With broader coverage than ever before, the report shines a light on the shadowy world of ransomware, explores the cybersecurity implications of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and looks at how cyber criminals continued to use COVID-19 lures as vaccination programs rolled out and new variants rolled in. Visit the blog now for a summary and to download the full report.

Keeping with Human Factor, host Brian Reed and guest Sherrod DeGrippo, Proofpoint VP of Threat Research and Detection, talk through highlights from the report on this week’s episode of Protecting People. Covering everything from the return of Emotet to the rise of telephone-oriented attack delivery, Sherrod shares her insights into some of the key campaigns featured in the report—and gives a few predictions for what’s coming next.

And on this week’s Five-Minute Forecast, Clop ransomware returns after a four-month absence, Indian airline SpiceJet suffers delays after a cyber attack, and senior threat researcher Andrew Northern explains how Nerbian RAT got its name.

Insights Chart of the Week
That's No Moon...

It's TA511, the most prolific threat actor we saw in 2021, as revealed by this year's Human Factor report. Will it be able to hold on to the top spot next year? Not if Emotet (TA542), which spent most of 2021 offline after law enforcement shutdown, has anything to say about it.

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White Paper
2022 Voice of the CISO Report

Find out what's front of mind for the world's top security leaders in the wake of two years of pandemic disruption, remote and hybrid work and fast-evolving job demands.

Podcast
Podcast: Insights from 1,400 Global CISOs

Proofpoint Global Resident CISO Lucia Milică discusses this year's Voice of the CISO report with cybersecurity evangelist Brian Reed.

Researcher POV
What Can Intelligence Analysts Learn from the Civil War?

Senior threat intelligence analyst Selena Larson explores lessons from the life of pioneering spymaster Allan Pinkerton.

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REPORTS
Threat Report
The Human Factor 2025

Cyberattackers target people. They exploit people. Ultimately, they are people. That’s why the Human Factor report focuses on how technology and psychology combine to make people so susceptible to modern cyber threats. In this first volume, we take a closer look at attacks that rely on social engineering, including business email compromise (BEC) threats, email fraud and phishing.

REPORTS
Threat Report
Fall / Winter 2021 Threat Update: Ransomware, BEC and Evolving Tools and Techniques

In 2021 the spotlight of global attention fell on cyber criminals like never before. In our first semiannual threat update, we explore new techniques and old tricks in a rundown of the year's biggest themes and schemes.

About The Threat Research Team

Our threat researchers are responsible for tracking shifts in the cybersecurity landscape, identifying new attacks as they emerge, and monitoring how threat actor tactics, techniques and procedures change over time. The threats they detect and the signatures they write feed into our platforms and are keystones in a system that analyzes more than 2.6 billion emails, 49 billion URLs and 1.9 billion attachments every single day.

By studying what cyber criminals are doing now, our threat researchers are better able to anticipate what they’ll do next. Every day, their work keeps our customers protected—not just from today’s attacks, but tomorrow’s threats as they evolve.

Threat Hub Chart of the Week
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