Understanding Email Spoofing

Email serves as a vital communication tool for individuals and businesses alike. Its convenience and efficiency make it a useful feature. However, using email also opens the door to various cyber threats. One of the biggest ones is email spoofing.

This deceptive technique has become increasingly prevalent, posing significant risks to security. Over 3 billion spoofing emails are sent a day. By discovering the intricacies of email spoofing, its potential consequences and how to safeguard against it, you can mitigate the risks associated with email spoofing.

Read: Email Security Best Practices You Should Follow

What Is Email Spoofing?

Email spoofing is a malicious practice where cyber criminals forge the email header to deceive recipients about the sender’s identity. By manipulating the email’s “from” address, attackers make it look as though the email was sent from a legitimate source, like a company executive, government agency or colleague. It exploits the trust we place in email communication, and most recipients don’t realize the sender is forged unless they closely inspect the header.

Email spoofing aims to hide the scammer’s identity and impersonate someone else, usually by utilizing elements to make the message seem more realistic. This attack has become popular for cyber criminals because email protocols lack built-in authentication and email spoofing requires little technical experience.

Email spoofing occurs in three ways:

1. Display name spoofing: This is when only the sender’s display name is falsified and the email address doesn’t match the display name.
2. Legitimate domain spoofing: This is when a cyber criminal uses Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and an email platform to change the fields within the message header, including the “from” and “reply-to” fields.
3. Look-alike domain spoofing: This is when the scammer creates a look-alike domain that appears indistinguishable from the legitimate domain. A popular example of this is amazon.com vs. amaz0n.com where the “o” is replaced by a “0.”

Consequences of Email Spoofing

Cyber criminals use email spoofing for several reasons: sending spam, conning people into sending money, distributing malware, attempting identity theft or implementing a phishing attack to steal login credentials and other sensitive data.

No matter the reason, email spoofing can lead to several negative consequences:

• Data breaches: Spoofed emails can help scammers gain unauthorized access to sensitive information, leading to data breaches and compromised sensitive data.
• Financial fraud: Cyber criminals may use email spoofing to trick users into transferring funds or making financial transactions under false pretenses.
• Reputational damages: Spoofed emails can harm the reputation of legitimate entities, especially if the message spreads lies or malware. This can result in losing trust among customers, clients and partners.

How to Spot a Spoofing Email

Several signs and hints can help you identify a spoofing email:

1. The email header: The email header contains information, including the data, subject line, recipient name, sender name and email addresses. Ensure that the email address is from a legitimate source and that the sender’s name matches their email address.
2. The email content: Spoofed emails usually contain messages that create a sense of urgency or impulsiveness. If the email aims to scare you into doing something quickly or asks for personal information, it’s probably a scam. Check for spelling and grammar errors, generic greetings or fake company logos. You can also copy and paste the email’s content into a search engine to see if others have already reported it online.
3. The email signature: If there’s information in the email signature, like a phone number or postal address, but it doesn’t match the sender’s information, it could be a scam. For example, something is wrong if the email is from a Michigan business but it has a Georgia phone number.
4. Links or attachments: If you receive an email with suspicious links or attachments, don’t click on them. Always try to verify the sender’s intent first, especially if the email came from someone you’re supposed to know.

Protecting Against Email Spoofing

Implementing robust email security measures can help individuals and companies better protect themselves from falling victim to deceptive email traps.

• Utilize email authentication protocols: Email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM and DMARC use domain authentication to verify the authenticity of incoming emails and ensure they are from legitimate sources.
• Educate users: Train staff to recognize phishing attempts and suspicious emails. Encourage them to verify the legitimacy of emails, especially those requesting sensitive information or financial transactions. Provide a way for them to report suspicious emails, and remind them to never divulge personal or business information.
• Regularly update and patch systems: Ensure your email servers and related software are updated with the latest security patches. Regularly updating systems and software can help address vulnerabilities that could be exploited.
• Install antispam and antimalware software: These software programs can help detect and filter spoofed messages, as can email filters.

Thriveon Can Help Fight Email Spoofing

At Thriveon, we know how important it is for your company to send and receive emails without the risk of cyber attacks. That’s why we offer comprehensive managed IT and cybersecurity compliance services so you can keep your emails safe from cyber criminals.

Schedule a meeting to see how we can help your business today.