Why CISOs Should Hunt Phishing Campaigns, Not Just Emails

Jan de Vries · 2026-07-30

Every security team knows the feeling. You've spent hours sifting through alerts, chasing down indicators of compromise (IOCs), and flagging suspicious emails. Yet somehow, the next attack still slips through. It's exhausting. And it's also the wrong approach. Cofense, a leader in phishing defense, argues that the real problem isn't a lack of data. It's how we think about that data. Instead of focusing on individual emails or IOCs, CISOs need to shift their mindset to campaigns. That single change could be the difference between constantly playing catch-up and actually getting ahead of attackers. ### The Problem With IOC Fatigue IOC fatigue is real. When you're drowning in thousands of individual indicators, it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. Each email looks like a one-off event, so you treat it that way. You block the sender, delete the message, and move on. But attackers don't work that way. They launch coordinated campaigns, often with dozens or hundreds of variations, all aimed at the same goal. Think of it like this: a single email is just a raindrop. A campaign is the storm. If you only watch for raindrops, you'll miss the flood until it's too late. By shifting your focus to the storm itself, you can spot patterns, predict where the rain will hit next, and prepare your defenses accordingly. ### Why Campaign-Based Detection Works Campaign-based detection flips the script. Instead of asking, "Is this email malicious?" you ask, "Is this part of a larger attack?" That question changes everything. Here's what it gives you: - **Better visibility:** You see the full scope of an attack, not just one slice of it. - **Faster response:** When you identify a campaign, you can block all related emails at once, not one at a time. - **Reduced analyst fatigue:** Your team spends less time on repetitive, low-value tasks and more time on actual threats. Cofense's approach uses real-time intelligence from millions of reported emails. That data helps identify campaigns as they emerge, giving you a head start on the next wave. ### Moving From Reaction to Prevention The old way of doing things is reactive. You wait for an attack, respond to it, and hope the next one doesn't hit harder. Campaign-based thinking flips that. It's proactive. You're not just responding to what's already happened; you're anticipating what's coming next. For example, if you see three different phishing emails targeting your finance team within a week, that's not a coincidence. That's a campaign. Recognizing that pattern lets you warn your team, tighten security controls, and stop the attack before it does real damage. ### What This Means for Your Security Strategy Adopting a campaign-based mindset isn't just a technical change. It's a cultural one. It requires your team to think differently about how they work. But the payoff is worth it. Here are a few practical steps to get started: - **Stop treating every email as an isolated event.** Look for connections between them. - **Invest in tools that aggregate and analyze threat data** across your entire environment, not just your inbox. - **Train your analysts to ask bigger questions** about the attacks they're seeing. ### The Bottom Line CISOs can't afford to keep fighting fires one email at a time. The threat landscape is too complex, and the volume of attacks is too high. Campaign-based phishing detection offers a way out of that cycle. It gives you the visibility to see the full picture, the speed to respond before damage is done, and the clarity to keep your team from burning out. The shift isn't easy, but it's necessary. And in a world where attackers are constantly evolving, it's the only way to stay one step ahead.