What is email spoofing?

Email spoofing is a kind of cyberattack where a hacker forges an email header so that it looks as if the email originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. Spoofing is a popular technique used in phishing and spam attacks because people are more likely to mistakenly click on a malicious email if it looks like it originated from a source they recognize and trust. All a hacker needs to spoof an email is a SMTP server and email software. Once an email has been written, the hacker can easily forge the FROM, REPLY-TO, and RETURN-PATH fields in the message header. When the malicious email reaches its intended target, it will look like it came from a legitimate source.

How can organizations help prevent email spoofing?

Preventing email spoofing can be tricky because many people don’t look at their emails closely enough to be able to spot a problem. To help prevent email spoofing, you should stay vigilant and employ these best practices: Keep your email spoofing protection and anti-malware software up to date. Limit the amount of private information you share on social media sites, and never share such information through email. Read your email headers carefully and help your team learn to recognize the signs of email spoofing. Use reverse IP lookups to verify the real sender of suspicious emails. Audit email accounts to see how they respond to SPF, DMARC, and similar policies. At a base level, MSPs should be sure to incorporate anti-email spoofing software into their core security layers.

Why use SPF, DKIM, and DMARC?

Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain-Based-Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) are the gold standard of email authentication. These protocols are used to authenticate the sender of an email and prove their trustworthiness, which helps prevent your customers from unknowingly falling for an email spoofing scam. SPF restricts which mail servers can send emails from a certain domain name, which helps detect and block email spoofing. If you sign an email with DKIM, the recipient will know that the message is from a verified sender and that its contents haven’t been modified by a hacker. When combined with SPF, DKIM helps reduce the likelihood that your email will be marked as spam and discourages hackers from attempting to spoof your emails.

How do SPF, DKIM, and DMARC work?

SPF works by providing a mechanism that allows mail exchangers to verify that incoming mail from a certain domain comes from an IP that has been authorized by the domain’s administrators. Then, a list of authorized sending hosts and IP addresses are published in an SPF record. DKIM adds a special signature to your email headers. This signature contains a hashed value of the email’s content—both the body and the main headers. When a server checking for DKIM receives an email with this signature, the DNS of the sending domain will send the server a public key it can use to decrypt the signature and verify the email’s content. DMARC allows the admin of the recipient to act on messages when criteria aren’t met and gives senders the tools to monitor the abuse of their domains.

Spear Phishing Prevention Secure Business Email How to Protect Your Organization Against Email Spoofing How to Prevent DNS Poisoning

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