#stop spoofing

Why DMARC Is Great For Business?

Since its invention nearly five decades ago, email has become one of, if not the most important modes of business communication. Its sheer ubiquity stems from the open-ended nature of the platform, which makes sending and receiving messages quick and easy.

But that open-endedness comes at cost: email is usually the first point of entry for a cybercriminal looking to get access to company data, and it’s also the most common point of failure. As many as 9 out of 10 data loss incidents involve some sort of phishing attack. This can happen when an individual opens an email from the attacker, clicks on a malicious link or provides sensitive information, compromising company security.

In the world of email, deliverability is paramount. When you can’t get your mail out to customers, you’re cutting off communication, which hurts both your business and your brand. So how do you reconcile the two concepts: security and deliverability? With DMARC, that might just be possible.

DMARC is a protocol created to deal with email domain spoofing and unauthenticated mail coming from unverified sources. It’s a standard built on top of existing technology, adding feature that have become an industry standard. There’s three major benefits to DMARC that boost email security and deliverability:

 Reporting:

With DMARC implemented, domain owners receive reports concerning the email they send on the internet. The reports offers a comprehensive overview of all the email being sent through a domain. It gives you an insight on who is receiving the emails, from where the messages come from, what messages are not verified, and what percent of emails are correctly verified. This is crucial information that can help businesses make more informed decisions about what they are doing with email communications.

Control:

Before DMARC, if an email failed authentication, it would either be rejected by the email server or sent to spam. This was automatic, and the domain owner had no control over what happened to the email. But when you deploy DMARC, you get the option of setting your policy to one of three settings: reject, quarantine, and none. Depending on your choice, email that fails validation gets rejected, goes to spam or continues into the inbox. 

Delivery Rate:

When you implement DMARC, you’re showing that you’re committed to preventing email spoofing and phishing. This is reflected with an increase in your reputation as a safe and trustworthy domain. Email receiving servers keep track of this and use it to determine whether or not your email reaches its destinations. By boosting reputation, you’re increasing deliverability, which can only mean good things for your business.

DMARC not only benefits the email receiver, but is crucial to the sender’s domain reputation. For companies that wish to grow and expand their business ventures, they can gain by implementing DMARC. It’s a protocol with two major facets. It blocks spoofing of your domain by unauthorized third parties, but the most valuable facet is that it verifies your valid emails and gives delivery precedence into the recipients’ mailbox. It is more likely that legitimate marketing emails will be consigned into to inbox and not into the Spam or Junk Mail folder. 

Using an application like PowerDMARC, domain owners can easily implement DMARC and secure their domain. We’ll handle the DMARC side of things so you can focus on what’s most important: your business.

Few technologies have stood the test of time quite like email. Despite having been invented nearly 50 years ago, it’s shown no signs of slowing down or growing obsolete.  

It’s still the most widely used form of business communication decades after going mainstream. In that same timespan, however, email security hasn’t seen nearly the same levels of growth or awareness among email clients and their users. Companies and their employees continue to fall prey to email-borne phishing attacks, year on year. We’re left vulnerable because we’re unaware of security measures that can help them to handle unauthenticated emails. This article will give more insight into how you as a business owner or individual can safeguard your mail inbox from phishing as well as cyber-attacks.

 DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) is an industry-standard protocol for authenticating email. When you publish DMARC records on your DNS, email receiving servers will be able to tell the difference between email from your domain and spam emails that try to spoof your domain. The system is designed on top of two current email standers namely DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and Sender Policy Framework (SPF). For an email to be considered safe, DMARC require that it pass either the SPF or DKIM validation test.

While both of these are authentication protocols in their own right, DMARC has an important feature they lack: a feedback/report system. When someone sends an email from your domain that fails to pass both SPF and DKIM, it sends you a report that you can use to to find out if the email came from you or an unauthorized third party.

 The DMARC tool has three settings to analyse incoming emails: reject, quarantine, and none. Reject, as the name suggests, prevents the email from entering the inbox altogether, while quarantine sends it to the spam folder. None just sends the email to inbox. In all three cases, the domain owner receives a report about authentication failure. They can then choose how they want to deal with the unauthenticated emails. However, a majority of domains don’t even have valid DMARC records, meaning anyone can use their domains to send fake emails. Moreover, many companies that do implement it fail to set their DMARC policy to reject, which means even an email that fails DMARC goes into the inbox. which orders the receiving mail server to decline unauthenticated messages. This hasn’t exactly been great for email’s image as a reliable mode of communication in recent years. 

Too many organisation don’t see the importance of safeguarding and analysing their domains. 

This allows cybercriminals to freely use unprotected domains to send phishing emails and malware, compromising data belonging to companies, their employees and their clients.

 But implementing DMARC is easier than you’d think. Since most companies already use DKIM and SPF on their mail servers, all they need to do is publish valid DMARC records and set their preferred policy (reject, quarantine or none).

 What makes DMARC so compelling is that it benefits both the domain owner and the email user. A domain with DMARC enabled is protected from domain spoofing, and email users enjoy a clean, safe inbox that doesn’t have any nasty surprises waiting for them. It stops bad email from being sent or received.

But it gets even better, because the more a user feels assured of a safe inbox, the more likely they are to click on your email. DMARC doesn’t just make email safer, but it can improve email deliverability and throughput, making it easier for you to reach out to customers. It’s a win-win, and in the best way possible.

Phishing is a cyber attack that steals data. The data stolen usually includes log in information and in some cases, credit card information. Phishing is accomplished when the hacker gets a victim to open an email, text or instant message. The victim is tricked into clicking a link which installs malware on their computer. Once the malware is installed, the system freezes and sensitive information is revealed.

Being a victim of a phishing attack can be devastating for individuals and companies. This can result in purchases using your card without permission to stealing your money to stealing your online identify (identity theft). Phishing is often used to gain access to government and corporate networks, being part of a much larger attack. This is often achieved through employees who open emails without knowing any better, distributing the malware within a small and closed environment. Companies that are victims of phishing can lose large sums of money, their reputation can be tarnished and they can lose their consumers trust as a result.

To fully understand phishing, a good example would be receiving an email advising your password is expiring and you need to renew within twenty four hours by clicking on the link provided. Email phishing is purely a numbers game. The attacker will literally send out thousands of email messages and as a result they can secure a large amount of private information and a good amount of money in the process, even if only a handful of the victims that received the email clicked on the link.

Phishing messages are designed paying close attention to detail ensuring that they imitate real emails. They will use the same fonts, logos and even signatures, ensuring their email looks genuine. The email often pushes a user into acting, making it feel as a sense of urgency. The only difference is that in the majority of cases, these emails will have a mistake in the spelling of their domain name.

What many people don't realize is that there is more than one type of phishing attack that you can be victim to, the second attack is called spear phishing and this type of attack targets a particular person or company. It doesn't act as a way to attack random victims, but has a person or business in mind. This type of attack is carried out through careful research and evidence. The hacker will pose as someone of importance such as a manager, supervisor or owner and provide detailed instructions. This could be a password protected document which mimics a stolen document, such as an invoice. Once the link is clicked or the document is opened, the malware is released.

There are a number of ways to reduce the risk of a phishing attack and excellent security is key, such as DMARC, which is a Domain-based Authentication Reporting and Conformance system. Be vigilant, know what to look for and identify small errors. If you are unsure, don't open the email, attachment or click on any links.

Two factor authentication is an effective way to reduce the risk of phishing attacks, requiring extra verification when accessing sensitive applications. Password management is a must along with email security to reduce the risk of attack and give companies peace of mind when it comes to their email requirements.

Don't fall victim to phishing, know what to expect and be prepared to reduce your risk in the long run.

Spoofing can cripple a company. This is when a hacker mimics someone you have known online. This is done to successfully access your sensitive information. This is usually done to get money. There is spoofing, which is emails sent to private individuals to gain financial rewards and then there is technical spoofing, which includes IP and DNS spoofing. It's important to ensure you understand what this is and how to protect yourself against attacks in the future.

Spoofing is a term used for all types of cybercrimes. It occurs when the hacker impersonates someone that is known to the victim. Spoofing involves a host of tactics from emails and phone calls being disguised to secure financial gain. Spoofing is also able to fool a network or computer using falsified IP addresses and redirecting internet traffic at a DNS level.

As a result you can imagine spoofing is not something you want to have to deal with. The hacker can deceive a victim, presenting themselves as someone else. The best way to describe this is the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf was able to spoof Red Riding Hood into believing he was her grandmother.  The hackers work to obtain the victims' trust through email or telephone calls, they then manipulate the victim into giving their sensitive information which results in identity theft, financial fraud and more.

Then there is spoofing on a larger scale. This is when networks are targeted rather than an individual. At this point the goal is to spread malware, bypass security systems, steal data and prepare for future attacks. It's very easy to fall victim to a spoofing attack because it is used so vastly with almost every attack being unique to the victim. Preparation is key, having reliable and strong security measures in place, providing quality protection when you need it the most. A good example would be DMARC, which is Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance.

Email spoofing is probably one of the most common cybercrimes, which involves the hacker sending an email from a false address that the victim will recognize. This can be a bank, social media account and more. Due to how emails are designed, email spoofing is easy and common. Emails are an unsecured system enabling people to send messages to each other. Spoofing can be brought to a halt with the right security measure in place.

Signs to look for when it comes to email spoofing is generic email domains. This is when the emails come from other companies, financial institutions and others. They look real and come from a free email provider. Companies are focusing on their personal marketing, which means that emails with generic greetings are likely to be spoofs. Watch out for any emails that have “Dear Customer” as their greeting.

One of the biggest tell tale signs that you are dealing with spoofing is when you receive an email that asks for your private and sensitive information. No company will ever send an email asking for credit card information.  It's also not uncommon for spoofers to add attachments to an email in the hope you open it. These emails contain viruses 

and malware. Never open an attachment you are not one hundred percent sure of.

In addition to email spoofing, there is IP spoofing. This is when a hacker uses detailed technology to confuse the basic protocols of the website. IP spoofing makes it look as though the traffic is coming through a number of sources, which is why it's essential to protect your business and your personal information against spoofing with a quality email protection solution.

Twitter boosts effort to stop spoofing @Recenttips.com #Recenttips.com Recenttips.com

Twitter boosts effort to stop spoofing

Twitter said Thursday it was ramping up efforts to crack down on impersonation on the messaging platform as well as the leaking of personal, privated

  The declaration came as a redesign to Twitter’s online wellbeing push reported in December.

“We streamlined the methodology of reporting badgering on Twitterrecently; now we’re making comparative changes…