~ OryxAlign explains the threat of Ropemaker attacks and how to guard against them ~
OryxAlign, a leading managed service provider (MSP) and cybersecurity expert, is calling on businesses to act now to implement defences against new, more sophisticated-than-ever forms of email hacking. The firm is working with businesses across sectors including construction, data centres, hospitality and leisure, telecoms and more to change their business practices and update cyber defences to avoid falling prey to Ropemaker attacks.
As technology continues to evolve, not only does it provide us with more sophisticated than ever work tools like copilot and custom GPTs but it also gives any malicious actors targeting our businesses new, highly sophisticated means of launching cyber-attacks. For example, hackers using phishing emails to launch attacks have developed new systems that change links embedded in emails from safe to harmful once they have cleared your firewalls and landed in your inbox.
Known as Ropemaker, this new form of email hacking is particularly dangerous as it cannot be stopped using traditional cyber software. That is because those tools work by detecting harmful links in emails and blocking them before they enter your inbox.
However, Ropemaker sees an attacker send a HTML email to the victim and use the CSS code – normally used to direct the presentation style of a web page – to leverage a remote file hosted on the attacker’s server to change the link to malware once it is in your inbox.
“Phishing emails have been one of the most common forms of cyber attack for years now and most businesses have acted to defend against these, but, sadly, those defences wont work against Ropemaker attacks,” explained Nathan Charles, head of customer experience at OryxAlign. “From our experience, email apps tend to be more susceptible than their in-browser counterparts, so we are encouraging businesses to switch to using browser versions of their email platforms in the short term until they have upgraded their cyber defences.”
OryxAlign can help businesses, no matter what industry sector they operate in, to upgrade their cyber defences in line with the latest emerging threats. Its team is highly skilled at developing and implementing new cyber security protocols that guard against everything from phishing attacks to spoofing and denial-of-service attacks.
To learn more about OryxAlign’s cyber security expertise and find out how the firm can help your business guard against Ropemaker attacks, visit www.oryxalign.com/cyber.
