Phishing URL Analysis Automation

Target Audience

• Cybersecurity Teams: Professionals responsible for monitoring and defending against phishing attacks.
• IT Administrators: Individuals managing email systems and security protocols within organizations.
• Email Users: Users who receive suspicious emails and want to ensure their safety.
• Developers: Those looking to integrate automated workflows into their security processes.
• Compliance Officers: Personnel ensuring adherence to security regulations and standards.

Problem Solved

This workflow addresses the growing threat of phishing attacks by automating the analysis of suspicious URLs extracted from emails. It provides:

• Timely Detection: Quickly identifies potentially malicious links, reducing response time.
• Comprehensive Analysis: Utilizes URLScan.io and VirusTotal for detailed threat assessments.
• Automated Reporting: Sends alerts via Slack, ensuring that relevant teams are immediately informed of potential threats.

Workflow Steps

1. Trigger: The workflow can be executed manually or scheduled to run regularly, ensuring consistent monitoring.
2. Email Retrieval: Fetches all unread messages from Microsoft Outlook, ensuring only new threats are analyzed.
3. Mark as Read: Updates the status of emails to prevent reprocessing.
4. Indicator of Compromise Detection: Uses Python to extract URLs from email content, identifying potential threats.
5. URL Checks: Validates if the extracted URLs are present before proceeding with further analysis.
6. URL Scanning: Submits URLs to URLScan.io and VirusTotal for in-depth scanning and threat assessment.
7. Wait Period: Introduces a 1-minute pause to allow for report generation from URLScan.io.
8. Report Retrieval: Collects analysis reports from both scanning services.
9. Data Filtering: Ensures only complete and relevant reports are processed further.
10. Slack Notification: Sends a detailed message to a designated Slack channel, summarizing the findings and verdict of the analysis.