Defending Email Phishing attacks in a Nutshell

Cybercriminals do not need rocket science to entice targeted users with email scams. Even old baits like lucky draws are enough to lure targeted users into clicking on malicious links or giving away their details. This is how phishing attacks work.For those who are new to this term, a phishing attack is the most infamous form of cyberattack. It is deployed using fear tactics or social engineering strategies. Cybercriminals usually target email accounts of victims to infiltrate their personal information for malicious purposes.

These cybercriminals disguise themselves as legitimate sources to dupe email recipients. They use enticing email subject lines or message content to trick recipients into responding by either clicking a malicious link or opening attachments. Or just simply provide their sensitive information to these cyber threat actors.

The most common types of phishing emails are Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks, spear phishing, whaling, pharming, etc. To prevent falling victim to such phishing attacks, it is important to implement cybersecurity solutions.

How a successful phishing attack can hurt your organization - TechRepublic

Cybersecurity Practices to Mitigate Email Phishing Attacks

Employee Education

The first and the foremost step to stay secure against email phishing attacks is user awareness. Employees play a major role in the cybersecurity chain of an organization. Also, they are the most vulnerable link in cybersecurity and hold access to confidential information of your organization.

Therefore, turn your employees into the strongest link by educating and training them with security awareness training. Use the best in class security awareness training tools that offer phishing simulation to give your employees a real-life cyber attack experience. This would not only help them in recognizing email-based attacks but would also help in analyzing their vulnerability level.

The Dos and Don’ts

Beware of unsolicited or suspicious emails landing in your inbox. Often unexpected emails grab the attention of users by creating a sense of urgency to respond. It is better to pay attention to such emails and take precautionary measures while opening them.

For instance, if you receive an unexpected email from a known sender address, ask them personally via a different mode of communication regarding the received email. Do not click on links or attachments before verification.

 

Report Phishing Emails

Phishing emails mainly contain grammatical errors and spelling mistakes that can be hard to detect. They either come from odd sender addresses or manipulated legitimate email addresses. Even some phishing emails can claim to be from your bank or government organization, asking for your financial details.

It is essential to have a phishing incident response tool to learn whether the suspicious-looking email received is authentic or not. You can also get to know about the subtle manipulations done in the email by cyber threat actors by reporting on the tool.

 

Email Encryption 

Make sure to keep your email content secured by encrypting sensitive information. Cyber threat actors are upgrading their techniques to launch phishing attacks with evolution in technology.

There are various hacking strategies that can let these cyber threat actors sniff your email content for sensitive information or message alteration. To avoid any information leak, it is better to encrypt the confidential information in the email content.

 

Email Domain Security

What are DMARC, SPF and DKIM? How to master email security with these  protocols | CSO Online

Did you know that outbound emails can be manipulated by adding malicious attachments during the email delivery process? In fact, cybercriminals can spoof your email address to send malware-laden emails on your behalf to your clients or business associates.

Therefore, it is highly crucial to ensure that all your emails are being delivered securely and your email reputation is maintained. To do so, secure your email domains with vital email authentication protocols. Implementation of DMARC record, DKIM record, and SPF record in the DNS safeguards your email domain against email spoofing and BEC attacks.

 

Multi-factor Authentication

Enable multi-factor authentication to protect your account against unauthorized access. If someone else gets hold of your passwords, this authentication standard notifies you of unauthorized login or suspicious activities happening from a device other than yours.

It sends a security code to your email account, phone, or other authenticator apps whenever your email account is accessed from unknown devices.

 

Stay Up-to-date

Phishing attacks are deployed using social engineering tactics. Cybercrooks and cybercriminals trick users into revealing their confidential information through various manipulative ways.

These malicious practices involve scareware, baiting, pretexting and much more. Keep yourself updated with what cybercriminals are up to and about their new social engineering attacks.

With these preventive cybersecurity measures, you can stay secure from phishing attacks. Experience a cyber-resilient working environment in your organization by implementing and putting into practice these cybersecurity solutions.

 

Ultimate guide to prevent Email Spoofing

With technology making revolutionary advancements, the rate of cybercrime has subsequently increased in the last decade. With hackers coming up with new ways and means to trick company employees, to find a digital route into the company assets, basic knowledge on spoofing is not enough anymore.Base-level education on email spoofing includes impersonation of an organization or executive by cyber attackers to get employees to disclose their confidential information like corporate ID or password. This information thus provided enables hackers to gain easy access into the company’s databases and accounts, draining their finances, and leaking valuable data.

What is email spoofing?

As per a survey conducted by Forbes magazine on email spoofing statistics, cybercriminals send out around 1.3 Billion spoofing emails every single day. Cybersecurity analysts conducted detailed studies worldwide to disclose chilling statistics on email spoofing:

  1. 22% of all data breaches in 2019 were due to email spoofing.
  2. 88% of all organizations from 2019-2020 experienced phishing attacks due to spoofed email domains.
  3. 96% of all phishing attacks are carried out via email spoofing. 
  4. 56% of all hackers rely more on stolen corporate credentials from employees tricked via spoofed email domains, than malware attacks.

Hackers are moderating methods to trick users, which goes beyond just impersonating the company’s executive email domain. Sometimes, employees may even receive an email from their own email address as cybercriminals try imitating the victim itself.

This has increased the chances of falling prey to phishing attacks, dispersing confidential information, and hampering security at your workplace.

How does Email Spoofing Take Place? 

Email Spoofing: What is Email Spoofing and Phishing

Hackers and cyber attackers take a corporate email ID and create a forged email address using that ID, to give the impression that the email has been sent the exact same email domain. Cybercriminals generally make use of weak links and vulnerabilities such as poor email domain authentication protocols in the company to forge emails.

Statistics disclose that around 40% of all leading organizations lack proper email domain authentication.  Email domains generally operate via SMTP, which is the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, a communication protocol that enables the transfer of mail via digital platforms.

However, SMTP is not programmed with an automated email authentication mechanism. Cybercriminals exploit this vulnerability in order to create spoofed emails by making minor changes in the IP addresses that are very difficult to track by inexperienced people.

Scanning the operating system for viruses and malware and changing the password for your email address is a temporary solution and not an effective preventive measure.

Therefore, it becomes imperative to implement certain programs and mechanisms to ensure a well-rounded protocol for email domain authentication and nullify the chances of falling prey to a phishing attack.

Solutions for Protection Against Email Spoofing

SPF ( Sender Policy Framework)

SPF or sender policy framework is a coherent system for email authentication. SPF functions by confirming and checking the sender addresses before the email is redirected into the receiver’s inbox.

This way the authenticity of the email is confirmed by checking whether the domain that the email is being delivered from has a valid IP address.

How does it work?

The IP address is matched with the DNS records of all the email domains that the organization uses for transferring mails to their respective employees.

The DNS record contains a detailed list of all the valid IP addresses for a specific email domain used by the company for the exchange of official information and communication. While the SPF record enlists all the functional email domains used by the same. If the sent email fails to match the data present in the SPF record, it is automatically classified as a forged or spoofed email.

DKIM (Domain Key Identified Mail)

Domain Key Identified Mail is a unique authentication mechanism used to check email authenticity and reduce the chances of receiving spoofed emails. DKIM functions by using a cryptographic or signature-based tool to implement efficient email domain authorization.

This, in turn, ensures that during the entire route taken by the email, from the sender to the receiver, the features of the particular email have remained unaltered. It helps the recipient confirm whether the email has been sent from the valid source or has it been impersonating the mentioned source to conduct a phishing attack. This guarantees that the data is authentic, and it comes from an authorized source.

How does it work?

DKIM has access to the DNS TXT records of the email domains of the company. When an email enters the system it is assigned a unique identification key by this mechanism, which is verified against the public key in the DNS TXT records, after which a DKIM signature is included in the email header.

The records are updated from time to time on the basis of new senders, and an unlimited amount of data can be stored. When this email enters the receiver’s server, instantly, the DKIM signature is drawn out from the email header.

The header of the mail now contains the domain name as well as a selector that incorporates the signature ( public key) of that particular email in the DNS TXT record. The public key will then be used to validate whether the data in the email has remained unaltered, and hence check for authentication.

DMARC (Domain Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance) 

What are the benefits of DMARC? | Check DMARC - DMARC360

One of the most advanced methods implemented for email authentication is DMARC, which allows the receiver to know whether the received email is verified against the SPF and DKIM records. DMARC is a 21st-century tool which enables employees at organizations to detect spoofed emails going from their domain, independently.

DMARC is a comprehensive email authentication protocol, which keeps email domains secured by a step by step procedure for running a thorough scan on every aspect of the sender ID before the email lands in the receiver’s inbox.

How does it work?

After the email leaves the sender’s server, the SPF is verified via detailed checks run on the DNS records to match the sender’s email domain against all valid sources that the company can legally send emails via.

Furthermore, the assigned DKIM signature is also verified against the DNS records. Finally, the fate of the email depends upon the DMARC policy which can be set to “none”, “quarantine” and “ reject”.

In case of a none policy, the spoofed email lands in the inbox of the employee, in case of a quarantine policy the same is lodged into the spam box. If the DMARC policy is set to “reject”, the spoofed email is redirected into the trash bin.

A spoofed email is much more dangerous and harder to detect than a phished email since the email address in the former looks identical to the original email address. It is not possible for an employee to understand whether the received email is authentic or forged.

Therefore to gain protection from email spoofing and tackle phishing attacks, a well-rounded email authentication tool should be a part of your organization’s workplace security policy, to prevent emails from forged addresses from entering into your employees’ inboxes.

 

A guide to Email Security Practices

Why is Email Security Important?

Word Email Stock Illustrations – 5,813 Word Email Stock Illustrations, Vectors & Clipart - Dreamstime

Whether exchanging emails across networks or dumping them in your spam folder, a huge amount of data is sent, received and stored. You may not realize but there are high chances that an unsecured email might have landed in your inbox which can act as a source of data exploitation. Now you wouldn’t want that, would you? That’s why email security is very essential for our daily routine in order to keep a check if any malicious email is accessing our inbox or not. The cybersecurity professionals working in every industry vertical must stay updated with the prevailing attacks possible through emails.

According to ComputerWeekly.com, 82% of organizations claimed to have faced email-based cybersecurity threats in 2018. Whereas, ransomware seems to be the biggest cyber threat in the coming year. The reason being, ransomware attacks that encrypt critical business files and demand for ransom in return are often sent to individuals working in organizations by emails only!

These eye-opening facts call for proper email protection solutions that are needed to be implemented in every organization as a defensive system against invading cyber threats. As far as cybersecurity is concerned, the best solution is using email security tools that incorporate a wide range of security techniques that email accounts and services have. Proceed further for the top 5 email security practices that can benefit your organization from email-based cyber risks.

The 5 Types of Email Security Practices 

 

  • Never click the “unsubscribe” link in spam emails:

At times, certain emails manage to surpass the spam filter and land in your inbox. For instance, you come across one such certain email and on opening it, you discover that it looks like a phishing email. What would be your first instinct? In any normal situation, users tend to unsubscribe suspicious-looking emails but that is not actually safe!

Hackers are good manipulators and they use such links to fool people into clicking attachment which redirects the targeted users to a phishing site. Apart from that, these links also provide hackers with a back door for access into your system.

  • Avoid Public WiFi:

Never access emails from a public WiFi because they are less secure and hackers choose public WiFi to steal information by passing through a weak network. Cybercriminals require nothing but a laptop and basic software to hack into public WiFi networks and monitor all the traffic. Accessing emails via unsecured public networks can lead to misuse of user’s credentials and a huge loss of sensitive data. This could also result in further intended targeted cyberattacks that are down the line.

More organisations banning use of public Wi-Fi – report | Internet of Business

  • Email Encryption:

Disguising and encrypting email content potentially protects the sensitive data that is sent and received, from being read by anyone except the intended recipient. With email encryption, you can secure your emails over untrusted networks from eavesdroppers or any third person trying to invade in between the email exchange. This security strategy reduces the chance of disclosure of information as well as alter of message content.

  • Incident Response Tool:

Every 1 in 131 emails contains malware that is sent to the targeted users. Moreover, 95% of the data breaches are deployed through these malware-laden emails. In order to reduce these cyber risks, incident response tools like Threat Alert Button (TAB), help employees in an organization to report any suspicious-looking email for analysis.

This innovative tool by Kratikal is an instant phishing incident response tool where the reported suspicious-looking email is analyzed by the SOC team and moves the reported email to the spam folder in real-time for future exposure prevention, and this all is managed by just one click.

  • Employee Education:

Limit the chances of cyber risks in your organization by providing employees with cybersecurity awareness training tools. Along with the implementation of policies and email security tools to prevent cyber threat postures, it is essential to encourage employees to become proactive in combating attack vectors like ransomware, phishing emails, and cyber scams. Security awareness tools like ThreatCop is an AI/ML-based security attack simulation tool that assesses the real-time threat posture of an organization. With the unlimited number of attack campaigns and automated training campaigns, this product builds cyber awareness among the employees in an organization and creates a resilient working environment.

Implementing and working on the above-mentioned email protection solutions will not only keep your data safe but will also be beneficial in the long term. In order to protect your business, it is important to make sure that all your employees are empowered to make email based decisions and are protected from data thefts.

Email Security Best Practices for Companies

Hackers are everywhere nowadays and they won’t stop holding back from discovering vulnerabilities and exploiting your data. Secure your organization now with a robust email security tool in order to reduce the chances of becoming a victim of the prevailing cyber threats.

Smishing Attack: A Growing Cyber Threat

Smishing and vishing: How these cyber attacks work and how to prevent them | CSO Online

What is Smishing Attack?

If you believed that phishing could be the only possible threat to cyber-security, then you need to hit the rock bottom! Cyber-attacks are expanding like spider webs over the internet to create havoc in the security system of various sectors across the globe. Just as a phishing attack, a smishing attack is a type of cyber-attack which is infamously trending and carries advanced techniques to obtain victim’s data.

Smishing is a blended word, made with the combination of SMS and phishing. Just as cyber-criminals use emails to phish people into opening malware-laden attachments, smishing attacks are carried out using text messages.

What Is A Smishing Attack? (And How To Prevent It) | PurpleSec

SMS phishing or smishing is an unethical practice of sending fraudulent cellular texts to users to trick them into downloading the attached file or redirected link. These attached links take users to malware-laden websites on their mobile phones.

Smishing text messages contain absurd phone numbers or links to lure customers for immediate response. Smishing attack on your cellular device can be deployed in any form of attention-seeking text.

These nefarious text messages could claim to be your bank asking for your financial information. It could also ask in a tricky way for your ATM number or account details to get access to your bank balance.

Recent Smishing Attack Example: 

Just like phishing, smishing attack is deployed using cellular text messages with the motive to lure customers into giving away information. Smishing text messages often contain URLs or phone numbers.

The phone numbers usually have an automated voice system as a response. When it comes to SMS phishing, attackers use smart ways to trick victims into believing the text message they receive.

What is 'Smishing'?

For instance, if a smishing message comes from a number “5000” instead of any actual phone number, it means it is sent through email on the cell phone. This is done to indicate a legitimate message to trick people.

In an article by Cyware, a smishing campaign, “Lucky Draw Campaign” was targeted on Indian Nokia owners. In February 2019, Nokia owners received a text message claiming they have won a lucky draw.

The message was impersonated to have come from ‘Nokia.com online shopping Pvt Ltd.co’, claiming that the recipient has won Tata Safari or Rs.12, 60,000. However, it urged recipients to pay to 6,500 Indian rupees to claim their prize.

How to Prevent Smishing Attacks?

4 Clever Smishing Attacks to Watch for in 2021 | TechnologyAdvice

  • Never click on any links in text messages which come from unknown resources.
  • Restrain from responding to personal text messages that ask for your personal details.
  • If a text message looks like an alert or shows any urgency, verify the legitimacy of the source first before responding.
  • Look out for messages that are no sent via phone number. Scammers often mask their identity so that their location or identity could not be traced.
  • Messages that might be sent at odd hours or apart from business hours are usually smishing attacks.
  • Never give away your bank details or financial information easily to any text message asking for your credentials or verification.
  • Cyber Security researchers highly recommend organizations as well as individuals to use good security awareness tools as a preventive measure.
error: Content is protected !!