Phishing scams are typically fraudulent email messages that appear to come from legitimate senders, for example, a university, an Internet service provider, or a financial institution. These messages usually contain a URL that, when clicked, directs the user to a spoofed website or otherwise tricks the user to reveal private information such as login, password, or other sensitive data. This information is then used to commit identity and/or monetary theft.
Intent of spam messages is to get a user to reply to an email, to visit a web site, or to call a phone number. Intent analysis involves researching email addresses, web links (URLs), and phone numbers embedded in email messages to determine whether they are associated with legitimate entities. Phishing emails are examples of Intent. Frequently, Intent Analysis is the defence layer that catches phishing attacks.
The Barracuda Email Security Service applies the following forms of Intent Analysis to inbound mail, including real-time and multi-level intent analysis. There are three different type of intent analysis.
Intent Analysis – Markers of intent, such as URLs, are extracted and compared against a database maintained by Barracuda Central.
Real-Time Intent Analysis – For new domain names that may come into use, Real-Time Intent Analysis involves performing DNS lookups against known URL blocklists.
Multilevel intent analysis – Use of free websites to redirect to known spammer websites is a growing practice used by spammers to hide or obfuscate their identity from mail scanning techniques such as Intent Analysis. Multilevel Intent Analysis involves inspecting the results of Web queries to URLs of well-known free websites for redirections to known spammer sites.
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