Intrepidus Group, a leading provider of information security services, today announced the release of PhishMe, a software solution that enables user awareness training to  proactively thwart spear phishing attacks. The next-generation technology is an important weapon in the fight against the fast-growing and ominous threat of spear phishing and whaling attacks, a form of cyber crime that uses email-based "social engineering" to gain unauthorized access to corporate systems and confidential data.

Unlike mass-phishing perpetrators, who use spoofed emails to cast a wide net to fraudulently gather data from unsuspecting victims, spear phishing attackers target specific organizations and individuals. Unfortunately, this targeted and sophisticated technique has proven extremely successful in providing "hackers" access to financial data, corporate and military information, and trade secrets -- with the final goal, of course, financial or political gain.

"Emerging security threats to the corporate landscape put both the information and company as a whole at risk. Spear Phishing is a considerable danger as it is typically a non-random attack seeking specific confidential information," said Kenneth Tyminski, former CISO for Prudential Insurance Company of America. "The training-based approach of PhishMe helps to significantly reduce these targeted attacks through employee education, helping to safeguard sensitive networks from unauthorized access."

According to a recent report by iDefense Labs, a noted security and vulnerability research organization, there have been 66 distinct spear phishing attacks between February 2007 and June 2008, with the rate of attacks continuing to accelerate.

The report goes on to say that spear phishing groups have claimed more than 15,000 corporate victims in 15 months, with victim losses exceeding $100,000 in some cases. Victims include Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, government agencies, and legal firms.

"E-mail is critical to our business, but also a risk to the security of our network and information. Technical controls like firewalls and spam filters help, but only by making our employees part of our defenses can we be successful," said John Soltys, Information Security Manager at the Seattle Times Company. "By targeting our users in the same way attackers do and delivering an education message when the attack is successful we raise their awareness level and mitigate the risk. PhishMe's service simplified the administration of tests and provided more value than the in-house tests we've run in the past."

"Spear phishing groups are now incredibly sophisticated and, unfortunately, extremely effective," commented Robert Hansen (aka "RSnake"), a former member of the Anti-Phishing team at EBay and well-respected security blogger. "We're talking about experienced cyber criminals who have the skill and tools to pull off these schemes."
For more information, to view a demo or sign up for a trial account, go to http://phishme.com.