Research

How StrongestLayer Protects Against Zero-Day Phishing Threats Targeting WhatsApp Users

Phishing attacks have become a critical threat to enterprises worldwide, evolving faster than many legacy security systems can manage. One of the latest major wave of attacks targets WhatsApp users, leveraging sophisticated techniques to hijack sessions, steal sensitive data, and perpetrate scams. At StrongestLayer, we are meeting this challenge head-on with our predictive threat AI model, enabling organizations to detect and neutralize these threats proactively.


What’s the Threat?

Cyber criminals are creating sophisticated phishing attack infrastructures that include thousands of new phishing domains created every day, designed to not only exploit WhatsApp users but to stay under the radar of legacy cybersecurity security systems by using advanced cloaking techniques and decentralized multi-point detonation infrastructures launching targeted phishing attacks in a way that is almost untraceable using legacy detection methods. These attacks often mimic trusted interfaces to deceive users into providing credentials along with other sensitive information.


Motivations Behind the Threat

The objectives of these phishing campaigns are clear and multifaceted:

  • Session Hijacking: Misusing active WhatsApp sessions to impersonate users.
  • Data Theft: Collecting personal information for blackmail, identity theft, or fraud.
  • Scams and Spam: Distributing malware or fraudulent offers through compromised accounts.


StrongestLayer’s Detection Framework

Unlike legacy solutions, StrongestLayer has developed an advanced detection framework that has been built from the ground up. By leveraging years of data, extensive multi-stage network captures and innovative algorithms harnessing the power of generative AI models, we have identified and mitigated a large number of previously undetected phishing campaigns that also include a large number of these WhatsApp-targeted phishing campaigns. Our methodology includes:

  • Infrastructure Analysis: Identifying malicious domain behavior at scale.
  • Visual Pattern Recognition: Detecting brand impersonation through logos, favicons, imagery and interface analysis.
  • AI-Driven Intent Classification: Determining phishing tactics through our proprietary generative AI driven similarity algorithms.
  • Proprietary Detection Algorithms: Unique solutions designed to outpace the speed of evolving threats that enable detection of phishing infrastructure even if it is in cloaked / pre-armed / post-detonation state.


Why Legacy Systems Fail

Many traditional solutions are reactive, relying on static databases and outdated methods. This approach cannot detect zero-day threats effectively, leaving organizations vulnerable to rapidly evolving attacks.


The phishing landscape is outpacing many in the cybersecurity industry. StrongestLayer on the other hand is setting a new standard by rebuilding detection methodologies from scratch, focusing exclusively on measurable results. Our technology insures that phishing attacks can no longer outrun the enterprise detection. In fact, in many cases, our detection algorithms have been able to detect brand new phishing attacks many months in advance before the attack infrastructure was actually armed.


Why This Matters

Phishing is no longer a predictable threat; it’s a dynamic challenge that demands forward-thinking solutions. StrongestLayer equips organizations with the tools to detect, protect, and train against the most sophisticated phishing campaigns, on-the-fly and we do it in a way that every email user gets trained according to their very unique email footprint. This makes sure that every training that they receive from our cyber assistant is the most relevant and highly beneficial to them, while at the same time reducing the burden of SOC manifold.

As a board, prioritizing investments in proactive, AI-driven defenses like StrongestLayer ensures your organization is not just reacting to threats but staying miles ahead of them.