Email is a huge part of day-to-day life. Many of us use email to communicate for personal and professional reasons, whether it’s securing an important business deal or contacting a family member who lives on the other side of the world. Unfortunately, internet criminals also use the medium of email. Using clever tactics, including email spoofing, internet hackers can target unsuspecting victims and gain access to important personal and financial information.
While cybercriminals have appropriated a myriad of worrying methods to access important information, email spoofing is one of the most common. Here, we answer the question: what is email spoofing and how can you protect yourself against it?
What is email spoofing?
Email spoofing is a way of tricking people into thinking they have received an email from one source, when really it has come from another. For instance, if someone receives an email that seems to have been sent from a trusted company, but has actually been sent by a cybercriminal, they are a victim of email spoofing.
Email spoofing is typically used to make it easier for cybercriminals to initiate phishing attacks. By impersonating trusted sources, email spoofing attackers can gain access to sensitive information, including login details, financial details and important files. Email spoofing targets individuals and businesses and can have catastrophic consequences for both.
There are many different ways of forging sender addresses, including:
Fake display names
By changing the display name of an email, cybercriminals can mislead the email recipient quickly and easily. Many people are likely to open emails if they believe they have been sent from banks, supermarkets or courier companies, and email spoof attackers exploit this knowledge.
Fake domain names
Similarly, using a fake domain is a simple yet effective way to trick recipients into opening and trusting emails. Email spoofing attacks typically use fake domain names that closely imitate legitimate sources. This makes it difficult for the recipient to distinguish between real and spoof emails.
Exploiting email domains
Sometimes, cybercriminals don’t even need to impersonate email domains; if the security isn’t high enough, they can exploit legitimate ones quite easily. Some email sending services don’t verify the ownership of domain names, making it simple enough for email spoofing attacks to take place.
How can you protect yourself and your business against email spoofing?
The most important thing you can do to protect yourself or your business against spoofing attacks is to install anti-spam gateway. Anti-spam gateway uses sophisticated methods to filter emails quickly and efficiently, blocking spam from entering your inbox and protecting your network against harmful viruses and other threats. With anti-spam software, you can say goodbye to email spoofing and other online threats.
For anti-spam gateway you can rely on, look no further than MailCleaner. Our anti-spam software for enterprises eliminates up to 99% of spam and protects businesses against harmful malware. For more information about our anti-spam software, get in touch with us at MailCleaner today.