Case Study
Even small businesses are vulnerable to impersonation attacks.
South African Journalism Hub
SMEs at high risk of cyberthreats
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are at greater risk of cyberattack than they realize. Shockingly, only 36% of SMEs prioritize cyber risk, even though cybercriminals are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to impersonate their staff.
Impersonation fraud targets the employees of a business, using social engineering to trick them into breaking standard security policies and granting access to sensitive data or funds. In fact, research shows that a staggering 79% of SMEs say that ransomware was released as a result of a social engineering attack. Once a business is compromised, cybercriminals can carry out further breaches, such as spreading viruses or accessing personal data. It’s critical for SMEs to understand the severity of cyberthreats like this, and take action to protect their businesses.
The client’s challenge
MediaWeb Group is an integrated marketing and digital storytelling agency that provides services to IronTree, a Sendmarc partner. Over the last two years, they’ve developed a comprehensive understanding of IronTree’s suite of solutions. MediaWeb Group has both online and offline backups and uses several cybersecurity measures and solutions. However, email impersonation wasn’t something they’d considered a pressing issue because they felt it was unlikely given their size – why would anyone impersonate a boutique marketing agency?
MediaWeb explains, “One of the challenges that we repeatedly share with our customers is that ‘you never think it will happen to you.'” In MediaWeb’s case, this was entirely true. “While we have a number of cybersecurity and backup measures in place, and despite the fact that within your daily email inbox, you see email impersonation efforts, you never feel that you are going to get spoofed right under your nose.”
“We helped to market IronTree’s 2022 national roadshow and attended the events to shoot case study videos to tell their story. When attending a session where Sendmarc explained the benefits and technical prowess of their email impersonation protection software, we were impressed but didn’t act,” they added.
“That was until the cybercriminals came knocking and were impersonating our email. The first thing we did was call IronTree as their SecureIT suite offers, amongst others, Sendmarc. With intelligent technology, as well as simple management reports to entirely prevent email impersonation (or spoofing attacks), the same offering is available to organizations of all sizes. The response from IronTree and Sendmarc was literally immediate. We often share this about them, this time we saw it first-hand.”
What happened next?
“IronTree and Sendmarc immediately set up a Teams call, clearly explained how the solution works and started the onboarding process. They took us through the stages we would work through, how we were going to be protected, and the timeline. They explained the costs from initiation to execution, the security of our accounts, and successfully moved us to a safe and secure position being a five out of five Sendmarc score (https://irontree.sendmarc.com). Throughout this process, we had constant communication from the team at IronTree and Sendmarc, until we were fully protected.”
MediaWeb requirements
Prevent impersonation
Protect the identity of MediaWeb and their staff by preventing scammers from exploiting their brand and employees’ names for unlawful purposes.
Safeguard stakeholders
Guarantee that all recipients of emails from MediaWeb email addresses, including clients, partners, employees, and suppliers, can have complete assurance that the emails are legitimate.
Secure reputation
Maintain the highest level of email safety and security continuously to uphold trust in our brand.
Technical solution
DMARC was implemented and the client is now fully compliant and protected.
What the client had to say:
“Two things we can commend about this process: One is the level of collaboration and teamwork from IronTree and Sendmarc to solve a client’s dreadful concern. And two, IronTree constantly engaged with us, to make sure that all the actions were complete, and our objective was achieved – in our case, the safety of our company and our clients.
We are a boutique agency, but I shudder to think of the stress this could cause for brands much bigger than us.
The peace of mind we get from having DMARC protection is unquantifiable. Just knowing that MediaWeb Group is now using world-class technology and service providers to manage the ongoing risk. What we’ve learned is that every company needs to stay ahead of the risk because it never stops evolving. You have very little idea of all the attempts that are being made daily. I must admit that we have seen first-hand how you can ignore the dangers until they come knocking.”
– MediaWeb
Results achieved with Sendmarc solutions
- All illegitimate emails were identified and blocked
- MediaWeb’s reputation is now protected as fraudsters can no longer impersonate their domain
- Full visibility and insight into the use of MediaWeb’s domain
- Over 100 impersonation attempts from locations all around the world were stopped
- MediaWeb’s identity can only be used by legitimate, authorized senders
- Customers and suppliers are protected from fraudsters posing as MediaWeb
