Email spoofing security is an imperative addition to your email’s security posture, here’s why. Email spoofing is a form of internet fraud. It’s when a hacker sends an email that appears to be from someone else, and they use this fake email to trick you into opening an attachment or clicking on a link. This can happen in two ways: either by stealing your email address or by creating their own fake email address that looks like yours.
Email spoofing is used for many different reasons, but one of the most common reasons is to get people to click on links that take them to websites where they can download malware or viruses onto their computers. This way, attackers can steal your information and login information for things like bank accounts and other financial accounts.
You can learn about the latest phishing statistics here to assess the threat landscape yourself!
How Does Email Spoofing Affect Online Businesses?
Businesses are particularly vulnerable because they are often targeted by hackers looking for sensitive information such as credit card numbers and social security numbers. If someone gets access to this kind of data through phishing attacks—which is essentially what email spoofing leads to—it could cause a lot of damage for the business owner!
Email spoofing is becoming more common as technology advances and becomes more accessible. It can affect businesses in many different ways
2 ways in which businesses can be affected by domain impersonation
- For example, if someone uses the name of your business to send out phishing emails, they might be able to trick customers into giving up sensitive information or sending money to an account that isn’t yours.
- Another way this could hurt your business is if customers think they’re receiving important information about upcoming events or sales promotions but don’t realize it’s not actually coming from you!
The mechanics of Spoofing
As is a form of identity theft, in spoofing an attacker disguises the email address as coming from someone else. Because email is one of the most trusted forms of communication, it’s common for people to ignore any warning signs and open emails from unknown senders. That’s why a lack of email spoofing security can affect businesses so deeply.
When an attacker disguises an email address as coming from your business or one of your partners, they’re able to trick employees into opening and responding to phishing messages. These phishing messages can contain malicious links that lead to viruses or other malware, or they can simply ask for personal information that could be used in future attacks against your company.
Detection & Prevention
If you receive an email from someone who you trust but whose name doesn’t appear in the “From” field, be wary: It may be a spoofing attack!
Here are some ways to identify if an email is spoofed:
- Check the sender’s domain name – is it the same one you’re used to seeing? If not, it could be a fake.
- Does the message have any typos or grammatical errors? If so, it might be a fake.
- Does the message contain links that seem out of place or don’t match what you’re expecting? If so, it might be a fake.
- Hover over links in emails, and check where they go before clicking on them.
- Check with your IT department at work or school if you’re not sure about an email that’s come through your inbox.
- Finally, to gain email spoofing security at your organization, deploy the right tools and solutions to protect your domain from forgery.
Implementing a well-rounded Email Spoofing Security policy
In order to prevent this kind of security breach, it’s important for businesses to use DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance) to ensure that their emails are authentic.
DMARC is a standard for authenticating emails sent from domains and ensuring that they don’t go astray in transit. It also allows companies to report back on messages that fail validation. This lets you know if someone has tried to spoof your domain with their own emails—and take appropriate action against them.
Unsure whether this is the right option for you? We have got you covered! Get your free DMARC policy without spending a dime and weigh out the benefits yourself!
DMARC forms the pillar of Email Spoofing Security
DMARC works by allowing an organization to publish a policy for how their domain should handle messages with specific characteristics (such as being sent from a different domain). If a message meets those criteria, it will be flagged as suspicious and either passed along without being delivered or delivered but marked as spam.
That way, if anyone tries to use your domain name to send out fraudulent emails or get people to click on malicious links, they won’t succeed because they won’t be able to pass through your email servers in the first place!
How does it work? Well, DMARC helps you verify whether an email is legitimate or not by comparing the “From” address on an incoming message with your company’s published SPF record and DKIM signature. If they don’t match up, then you know that your mail server has been compromised and you should take action immediately.
PowerDMARC is a full-stack email authentication suite that helps businesses gain email spoofing security and compliance with DMARC. It provides businesses with the peace of mind that they are sending only legitimate and genuine emails, while also giving them insights and key metrics on how their adoption of DMARC is progressing.
Gain Email Spoofing Security for your business and customers by becoming a DMARC MSP
If you want to add high value to your brand by becoming a part of an esteemed and widely growing community of safe email users, become a user and a preacher! Here’s what you gain:
When you become a DMARC MSP partner you are doing much more than gaining email spoofing security:
- You can now protect your customers from email fraud
- You gain 100% compliance on all outgoing and incoming emails
- A partner-exclusive dashboard to monitor your email channels
- Access to a wide range of email security solutions (that goes beyond the scope of just DMARC) that you can now provide your customers while making money from it!
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