Softline Seed Fund helps build shield against phishing

Softline Seed Fund, a joint venture between Softline, a private Russian firm, and the government-owned RVC Seed Fund, earlier this year bought into PhishMan, a young Russian service. PhishMan offers users its proprietary system to shield corporates from phishing, one of the most dangerous web scamming techniques designed to steal user accounts.

PhishMan helps companies counter phishing through training. The software sends out emails with various traps, thus imitating fraudulent activity, and assesses the way recipients react to the emails. If a user opens an email trap, PhishMan offers him a customized training course. Such emails are sent out on a regular basis to check how attentive employees are. This enables the system to monitor user awareness about possible threats.

“Today, with most companies having a variety of tools to technically protect their IT infrastructure against cyber-attacks, users have become the weakest point in the corporate security system. Fraudsters find it much easier to “hack” a person than sweat to outwit technical protection tools. More than half of hacks start with phishing, as users disclose their passwords themselves by opening malware-containing emails and clicking on links. Many companies underestimate the risk; with access to an employee’s workstation fraudsters will take just a few hours to gain control over top managers’ accounts and access financial information. This may cost a company millions of dollars in thefts,” PhishMan CEO Nikolai Agrinsky said.