Email spoofing is a technique used in spam and phishing attacks to trick users into thinking a message came from a person or entity they either know or can trust. If it’s a name they recognize, they’re more likely to trust it. So they’ll click malicious links, open malware attachments, send sensitive data and even wire corporate funds.
Introduction
Today, about 91% of cybersecurity breaches begin with an email. In this article, we will be discussing how email spoofing is used to create malicious email attacks such as phishing emails and how can one identify if the email they recieved is a phishing attempt. Furthermore, we will take multiple measures to mitigate this problem.
How Email Spoofing Works
Email spoofing is one of the most basic attacks that can be performed by anyone and does not require any special resources. It can be easily achieved with a "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol" (SMTP) server and a mailing software such as: Gmail, Outlook, etc...
Once the email is composed, the attacker will forge field within the email headers. for example: FROM, REPLY - TO, and RETURN - PATH adresses. After the customization is done and the email is sent, it should arrive to the recipient’s mailbox. In such a case, it wouldn't seem suspicious, and it is unlikely that an ordinary employee would notice that something is amiss.
This simple yet dangerous attack is not going anywhere since the SMTP protocol does not provide any mechanism for addressing authentication. Although email sender authentication protocols and mechanisms have been developed to combat email spoofing, the adoption of those mechanisms has been slow.
Email Spoofing and Phishing
Phishing emails are the most severe use of Email Spoofing even if it is used to send spam emails.
As we have seen, Spoofed Emails might seem to be delivered from trusted sources such as: vendors, goverment institustions, shopping websites, etc. When combined with phishing, the attacker could get their target to:
Provide personal or financial information.
Turn over intellectual property and other proprietary information or data.
Perform a wire transfer or another electronic transfer of funds.
Provide login information or other user credentials.
Download a file from an email that contains malicious software.
Click on a malicious link.
Spear Phishing is aimed at a specific individual or organization. For instance, an attacker could use Email Spoofing to impersonate an email from the CEO towards one of the employees with the aim of doping the recipient into transferring funds or sharing sensitive information such as passwords and credit card details.
How To Identify A Spoofed Email
The most efficient way to recognize Email Spoofing is by looking at the email headers.
You can only view email header information on your laptop. The email headers contain a significant amount of tracking information showing where the message has traveled across the Internet. Different email platforms display these headers in different ways.
For instance, on Gmail Click on the 3 dots in the top right corner of the mail and select the ‘View Original‘ option.
On other email platforms, click ‘more‘ or ‘options‘ and select ‘view source‘. This will display the header information.
How To Mitigate Email Spoofing and Avoid Phishing
Below you will find information about how to avoid Email Spoofing, as well as how to recognize a phishing attempt.
Implement the SPF, DKIM and DMARC authentication protocols:
The protocols that I mentioned are designed to validate the integrity of the sender. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, can be used by businesses to prevent their domain names from being spoofed.
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) specifies the mail servers that are allowed to send email for your domain. Receiving mail servers use SPF to verify that incoming messages that appear to come from your domain were sent by servers authorized by you. Brands sending emails publish SPF records in their DNS which list which IP addresses are authorized to send emails on behalf of their domains.
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) adds a digital signature to every sent message. Receiving servers use the signature to verify messages are authentic, and weren't forged or changed during transit.
Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) tells receiving mail servers what to do when they get a message that appears to be from your organization, but doesn't pass authentication checks, or doesn’t meet the authentication requirements in your DMARC policy record. DMARC is always used with SPF and DKIM.
It ensures that fraudulent emails appearing to come from domains under your organization’s control are blocked.
2. Email Certificate:
Email Certificate or 'S/MIME' is also called personal authentication certificates. It is a useful tool to have at your disposal that enhances the security of your personal or business digital correspondences.
By using an Email Certificate you can:
Allow users to digitally sign their emails to verify their identity through the attestation of a trusted third party known as a certificate authority (CA).
Use public-key encryption to provide secure, end-to-end encryption for your emails. And considering that most email servers nowadays also use SSL/TLS encryption.
3. Watch Out From Phishing Red Flags:
Sense of urgency or threatening language.
Unfamiliar or unusual senders or recipients.
Spelling or grammar errors.
Request for money or personal information.
Call to action, such as clicking a link or downloading an attachment.
Additionally, employees should undergo a Cyber Awareness training that may include the following subjects:
Email scams and Malwares.
Social networking threats.
Safe internet use.
Removable hardware such as hard drives and USBs and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies.
Password security.
In Conclusion
Email Spoofing and Phishing scams are here to stay as long we continue to use email for personal and business communication purposes. According to studies, In 2022, cyber groups will continue to leverage fake news campaigns to execute cybercrime through various phishing attacks and scams. Business owners as well as individuals need to be aware and prepared to face these threats. It is time to take Cyber Security more seriously.
Feel free to contact us at any moment for more infomation and question.