Targeting the University of Oxford by e-mail

Working paper

The paper presents an empirical analysis of e-mail based attacks against the University of Oxford. In particular, it analyses the malicious e-mails received over the period of four months for observable targeting behaviour. It is found that most malicious e-mails are not tailored to their victims. Timing analysis showed that most malicious e-mails are received within the European workday. The paper then introduces a novel way of analysing the distribution of malicious e-mails within an organisation and identifies organisational units that are particularly exposed. Finally, the paper discusses the absence of targeted attacks and suggests an improved way of studying them.

Authors: Egloff, F

• Publication status: Not published
• Peer review status: Not peer reviewed
• Series: CDT Technical Paper
• Edition: Author's Original
• Paper number: 05/15
• Language: English
• Keywords: cyber security; targeted attacks; phishing
• Subjects: Cyber Security; Computing; Computer security