Email Risk

Assessment Report

Prepared For
Informata College

Prepared By
John Smith
Fortinet

Report Date
May 5, 2020
Executive Summary
We aggregated key findings from our email risk assessment within the Executive Summary below. As represented in the
summary, this report is divided into three sections: Security, Productivity, and Utilization. While the highlights are listed below,
a more detailed view of each section follows. Be sure to review the Recommended Actions page at the end of this report as
well for actionable steps your organization can take to mitigate email borne threats and optimize your overall email experience.

Security
842 52 4
Known or Known or Known or
Suspected Suspected URL- Suspected
Attachment-based based Attacks Impersonation-
Attacks based Threats

Note that any threats observed within this report have bypassed your existing email security solution, so they should be
considered active and potentially dangerous.

Productivity
415,225 19,925 1,647
Emails Flagged as Suspected Emails Detected
Spam Newsletters with Adult Content

Although not necessarily malicious, spam, newsletters and/or emails with adult content represent a potential nuisance and/or
offense. Organizations should consider whether the current level of unwanted or inappropriate email is acceptable.

Utilization
15,215 1.6GB 110.6KB
Average Emails Average Email Average Email Size
Processed Per Day Bandwidth Per Day

Although you may have moved to cloud-based email infrastructure, utilization statistics can be valuable in a number of ways,
they can be used to compare your email utilization against industry norms. Daily usage numbers can be tracked over time;
deviation analysis is also helpful when determining anomalous company-wide behavior.

Email Risk Assessment Report Page 1 of 9

Security
Quick Stats 842 known or suspected attachment- VBA/Agent.6A13!tr.dldr is the top known malware detected in
based attacks attachments
52 known or suspected URL-based 745 known malware identified
attacks mode.us72.reservierian.org is the top suspicious domain
4 known or suspected impersonation- from URL-based attacks
based attacks

Known Malware Identified

By applying the existing intelligence of FortiGuard Labs to your email traffic, we’ve identified known malware on their way to
your end user inboxes (via attachments). Below you can see the top 8 known malware identified by volume.

VBA/Agent.6A13!tr.dldr 164
VBA/Agent.7DA5!tr.dldr 98
VBA/Agent.8A23!tr.dldr 85
VBA/Agent.DBA5!tr.dldr 59
VBA/Agent.F78E!tr.dldr 55
VBA/Agent.LPT!tr.dldr 52
VBA/Agent.LMY!tr.dldr 42
VBA/Agent.LRB!tr.dldr 41

0 50 100 150 200

Known Malware Identified with Details

For the known malware we identified, we have presented more detail about the most persistent messages and malware.
# Sender Subject Malware Count
1 [email protected] External: Invoice Available VBA/Agent.6A13!tr.dldr 6
om
2 irazema.vega@trico- External: Outstanding invoice VBA/Agent.7DA5!tr.dldr 6
group.com
3 [email protected] Cambion de pago de sus servicios VBA/Agent.LPI!tr.dldr 6
4 err84yanker@mountainma External: Invoice Query VBA/Agent.LPT!tr.dldr 5
rycoll.com
5 [email protected] External: 29217 - SHABOT INC Invoice # VBA/Agent.F78E!tr.dldr 4
.mx 93855800121 12/07/2018
6 [email protected] External: Versa Comm / Account 63092 VBA/Agent.LRB!tr.dldr 4
7 [email protected] External: Purchase Order RTF/CVE201711882.OIE!exploit 3
om
8 [email protected] Billing Notification - New Invoice(s) VBA/Agent.3ABF!tr.dldr 3

Email Risk Assessment Report Page 2 of 9

Security
Unknown Malware Identified
After inspecting for known malware, attachments can be sent to a sandbox for further inspection. This normally entails
detonating the application/macro in a virtual environment and assessing behaviors. For instance, the sandbox may detect
malicious attempts to alter registry settings or system files or identify communications to known malicious sites. The top 10
unknown malware identified (ranked by risk rating) are listed below. Note: a rating of 1 = clean and 5 = malicious, with grades
of risk in between.
# Rating Malware Count
1 hash(59259401da43fb5152df9e6a6355de68e4c47d6583f628bff96e1e311c4d0) 5
2 hash(44ada5048a609f6adf619dfb929d0958199fe5a7282e60c9e770fa4bb69300b3) 5
3 hash(20ad3cd96e837f7fbd2835f1473116dbe4278f47dde82740092f4c98fe14225a) 1
4 hash(9546a2994d62fdd92b699546a2994d62fdd92b699546a2994d62fdd92b6977e2) 1
5 hash(b999a5324924b8f82a10be072004e8d678a437f6146ff5df44ab32f10fa8eb7f) 1
6 hash(d431846871dd01bd95811e7b9d41fe0face6f05e45a2a5aa063090a3c47e009c) 1
7 hash(eedf69e23d3fcf2f498db76ea91f49ccab5e07b64d741dd29abda7df98487c4e) 1

Suspicious URLs Identified

Emails were also scanned for embedded URLs and also followed in the sandbox, with communications, downloads and other
system activity analyzed as above. Often, these are attempts to establish an initial foothold within the network via a drive-by
download. The top 10 suspicious URLs below are ranked by risk rating.
# Rating URL Count
1 http*//bestbnbnepal.com/En_us/Documents/122018 1
2 http*//mirabellekruger.com/sryddihn 1
3 http*//moder.us13.detailmnt.org/trackinTZ5ktrvoUVZ5v5UNZkk/fr/UCZ/n/SqUi/click? 1
u=8f323da014191e03b8981d530&id=2ed588983e&e=3987288334
4 http*//moder.us13.embarkon.org/trackin9LXme184_fLXyX_KLmm08C8_bL7g8jQ_i/click? 1
u=8f323da014191e03b8981d530&id=2ed588983e&e=3987288334
5 http*//moder.us13.heavyhave.org/trackinzIv&H&0sqdIvevqbI&&00ePqEIv./dzqi/click? 1
u=8f323da014191e03b8981d530&id=2ed588983e&e=3987288334
6 http*//moder.us13.heavyhave.org/trackinzIv&H&0sqdIvevqbI&&00ePqEIv.pJPqi/click? 1
u=8f323da014191e03b8981d530&id=2ed588983e&e=3987288334
7 http*//moder.us13.livealways.org/trackinr2/VNYwk=Z2/0/=J2VV_wlw=72/5rnf=i/click? 1
u=8f323da014191e03b8981d530&id=2ed588983e&e=3987288334
8 http*//moder.us13.livealways.org/trackinr2/VNYwk=Z2/0/=J2VV_wlw=724AWmr=i/click? 1
u=8f323da014191e03b8981d530&id=2ed588983e&e=3987288334
9 http*//moder.us13.livealways.org/trackinr2/VNYwk=Z2/0/=J2VV_wlw=72_A5nX=i/click? 1
u=8f323da014191e03b8981d530&id=2ed588983e&e=3987288334
10 http*//moder.us13.noonwith.org/trackinBUn8uL=9YSUnInYlU88O=f=YPU11DKJYi/click? 1
u=8f323da014191e03b8981d530&id=2ed588983e&e=3987288334
Note: URLs within this chart have been changed from “protocol://” to “protocol*//” to prevent clicking on live malicious links.

Email Risk Assessment Report Page 3 of 9

Security
Impersonation Analysis
Impersonation emails are generally targeted attempts by nefarious actors to emulate an authority within a specific organization
rather than using attachments or URLs, they rely solely on communications to establish trust and entice the recipient to take
an action. The top 10 impersonation email interactions are listed below based on attempts.
# From Subject Count
1 [email protected] Fwd: Current work 1
2 [email protected] Fwd: School Registration 1
3 [email protected] External: Important: Tax Update 1
4 [email protected] External: Fwd: Registration Confirmation - Informata2019 Event 1

Email Risk Assessment Report Page 4 of 9

Productivity
Quick Stats 415,225 emails flagged as spam [email protected] is the top newsletter
[email protected] is the top spam sender
sender 19,925 suspected newsletters
arithsoftware.com is the top spam domain 1,647 emails detected with adult content
91:100 spam versus valid email ratio

Top Spam Senders

Spam is a persistent annoyance with most organizations. By understanding sources, enterprises can simply blacklist senders.
Should they find they are the senders, often in the case of marketing communications sent internally, it is recommended that
volume is rate controlled to avoid the organization ending up on blacklists. The top 10 spam senders by volume to your
domain are listed below.

[email protected] 23,717
[email protected] 14,684
[email protected] 11,103
[email protected] 10,419
[email protected] 10,135
[email protected] 9,339
[email protected] 6,032
[email protected] 5,167
[email protected] 4,296
[email protected] 4,151

0 9K 18K 27K

Newsletter Domains
Generally not considered spam, but sometimes equally as impactful are newsletters that your email users subscribe to. If
newsletters are a burden on your email infrastructure, we recommend modifying or enforcing corporate use policies and asking
subscribers to use their personal email addresses for such communications.

edumarketnews.com 1,367
schoolcool.org 894
messagecentral.com 668
gmail.com 654
tradepubs.educationrl.net 572
shoxie-tool.com 326
knowledgecloud.com 300
univ-crowd.com 296
missionnetwork.org 288
smartflex.com 247

0 400 800 1.2K 1.6K

Email Risk Assessment Report Page 5 of 9

Utilization
Quick Stats 15,215 average emails processed per day 456,451 total emails processed
1.6GB average email bandwidth per day 8.8MB largest size emails on average per day
110.6KB average email size 2.8GB peak email bandwidth per day
28,263 peak number of emails processed per day

Email Bandwidth per Day

The chart below details the amount of inbound traffic relative to spam received during the length of the email assessment.
There is typically a dip during non-work hours (usually resulting in a decline in email activity over the weekend).

Inbound Emails Spam Emails

3.3 GB

2.6 GB

2 GB

1.3 GB

667.6 MB

0
3

2
1-1

1-1

1-1

1-1

1-2

1-2

1-2

1-2

1-2

2-0

2-0

2-0

2-0

2-0

2-1
8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1
201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201
Email Bandwidth by Hour
The intent of this chart is to visualize peak usage for bandwidth related to email. Keep in mind that the legend is based on a
sliding scale which illustrates bandwidth segmented into five equal distributions. It’s typical for this chart to display heavy
bandwidth usage during work hours. However, heavy activity outside of normal work hours could be indicative of issues worth
further investigation.

12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

<245 MB 245 MB-490 MB 490 MB-736 MB 736 MB-981 MB >981 MB

Email Risk Assessment Report Page 6 of 9

Utilization
Email Count per Day
As opposed to Email Bandwidth Per Day, this visualization represents the sheer number of emails (total count) moving through
your email infrastructure. As with the bandwidth chart, this will typically fluctuate from highs (during the work week) to lows
(during weekends).

Inbound Emails Spam Emails

32K

24K

16K

8K

0
3

2
1-1

1-1

1-1

1-1

1-2

1-2

1-2

1-2

1-2

2-0

2-0

2-0

2-0

2-0

2-1
8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1

8-1
201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201

201
Email Count by Hour
Similar to Email Bandwidth by Hour, this heat map renders a count of emails across five evenly spaced (dynamically generated)
distributions. Any peak email counts outside of normal work hours may be worth investigating. If your email system applies to
a global organization, this can help identify regions which may need increased email capacity.

12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

<2.9 K 2.9 K-5.9 K 5.9 K-8.8 K 8.8 K-11.7 K >11.7 K

Email Risk Assessment Report Page 7 of 9

Utilization
Top Senders by Count
Identifying external senders who are generating large amounts of email can be useful to reduce the load on your messaging
infrastructure. This could include working with partners to reduce the amount of automated emails, changing corporate use
guidelines regarding newsletters, or even potentially blacklisting certain email addresses.

[email protected] 39,980
[email protected] 26,682
[email protected] 11,103
[email protected] 10,612
[email protected] 10,419
[email protected] 9,339
[email protected] 6,062
[email protected] 6,032
[email protected] 5,846
[email protected] 5,167

0 15K 30K 45K

Top Senders by Bandwidth

Similar to Top Senders by Count, this chart represents external email users who utilize the most bandwidth. This generally
means these users consistently include multiple or large attachments within their emails. It can be especially useful in
identifying partner processes which may be better served utilizing a different method of data exchange.

[email protected] 1.2 GB
[email protected] 809.3 MB
[email protected] 530.3 MB
[email protected] 476.6 MB
[email protected] 416.1 MB
[email protected] 412.3 MB
[email protected] 404.7 MB
[email protected] 385.3 MB
[email protected] 378 MB
[email protected] 359.5 MB

0 476.8 MB 953.7 MB 1.4 GB

Email Risk Assessment Report Page 8 of 9

Recommendations
1. Augment Your Email Security to Protect Against Known Malware
Known malware is currently bypassing your existing email gateway. We recommend that you verify the malware
signatures on your existing email gateway are up to date. If those signatures are already current, consider augmenting
your security with a secondary email gateway.

2. Add Sandboxing Technology to Detect Unknown Malware

Emails containing suspicious attachments (potentially unknown malware) were detected. Consider implementing
sandboxing technology to supplement your email security solution.

3. Improve Malicious URL Detection and Training

Emails containing known malicious URLs are being sent to your organization and circumventing your existing email
gateway. We suggest two courses of action: 1) add an additional layer of security to detect known bad URLs 2) train
your email users to never click on unknown URLs.

4. Educate and Protect Email Users from Impersonation Attempts

We detected emails which were an attempt to impersonate legitimate internal user(s); a type of spear phishing. Ensure
that you have: 1) trained your email users how to determine legitimate senders 2) implemented an email gateway
which can quantify and root out impersonation email attempts 3) have properly implemented and are managing your
DMARC records.

5. Implement Stronger Controls over Adult Content

Some email users are receiving explicit adult materials via email. This can create an uncomfortable and even unsafe
work environment. Consider implementing stronger email security controls over this category of email.

6. Remind Email Users About Proper Newsletter Use

We detected an inordinate amount (19,925 ) of inbound newsletters utilizing your email systems. Depending on your
corporate use policies, you can use this to remind email users 1) to please use personal emails to subscribe to non-
work newsletters 2) to unsubscribe to any opt-in, non-work newsletters 3) to ignore newsletters that were not opt-in,
but use this time to minimize their email footprint on the Internet (some non-consentual newsletters are sent to email
addresses found via screen scraping).

7. Contemplate Reducing Your Spam to Valid Email Ratio

Your current spam to valid email ratio is significantly higher than most organizations. With persistent anti-spam
optimizations, most organizations can bring this ratio down to something more manageable.

8. Add Isolation Technology to Address Zero-day Attacks & Suspicious Emails

Emails containing suspicious URLs (potentially phishing or advanced threats) were detected. Consider implementing
isolation technology to bolster your email defense so content from the web is accessed in a secure, remote container
and risk is eliminated.

Email Risk Assessment Report Page 9 of 9