Email Spoofing - How to Prevent From Email Spoofing Attacks

Have you ever received an email that looked as if it was sent by your senior or client or someone you know but was actually sent by someone else - a scammer? If so, you already know what it’s like to become a victim of email spoofing, and this article is here to explain your in more detail what is email spoofing and how to prevent your mail box from email spoofing.

What Is Email Spoofing and Why Is It So Dangerous?

Email spoofing describes an increasingly prevalent form of email fraud in which a malicious actor sends an email with a fraudulent “From” address. Email spoofing is when the sender of the email forges (spoofs) the email header's from address, so the sent message appears to have been sent from a legitimate email address. In an email spoofing attack, a cyber criminal masquerades as someone that the recipient knows and trusts - for instance, an executive, a colleague, a reputable organization or a friend. The fraudulent emails sent in these campaigns will usually ask recipients to perform an action that will eventually provide the attackers with access to sensitive credentials, enabling them to compromise networks, systems or financial accounts. Email Spoofing attacks have allowed countless cybercriminals to breach enterprise networks covertly without being detected.

Here is a list of email spoofing attack types:

• ARP Spoofing Attack
• IP Spoofing Attack
• MAC Spoofing Attack
• Email Spoofing Attack
• DNS Spoofing Attack

Email spoofing is a tactic that is frequently used in email-borne cyberattacks such as phishing, spear phishing, business email compromise (BEC) and email account compromise (EAC) attacks.

How Can I Defend Against Email Spoofing?

The core email protocols do not have any mechanism for authentication, making it common for spam and phishing emails to use such spoofing to mislead or even prank the recipient about the origin of the message. In other words, some other mechanisms must be adopted to prevent email spoofing. There are some ways to prevent from getting scammed like manually checking email header, checking originating IP address, using sender ID or SPF etc but they are more complex, technical and manual.

Safeguarding the inbox from email spoofing requires a defense-in-depth approach to email security, in which multiple layers of advanced security features and technologies work harmoniously to detect and block fraudulent or malicious emails. Users are the weakest link when it comes to email security and, even when equipped with education and training on cyber security threats and best practices, often fall victim to scams and exploits. Thus, it is imperative that businesses need to create a safeguarded environment around the user by implementing a comprehensive, threat-ready cloud email security solution.

Combat Email Spoofing Attacks with Guardian Digital EnGarde Cloud Email Security

Guardian Digital EnGarde Cloud Email Security offers remotely-managed and fully-supported protection against email spoofing and other malicious threats to business email. Guardian Digital URL Protect scans all URLs and attachments in real-time time to detect malicious links leading to compromise. Multiple layers of email authentication protocols including SPF, DMARC and DKIM verify that every email delivered to your inbox is indeed from who it says it’s from - not a malicious actor posing as the sender.