{"id":6982,"date":"2021-06-07T13:24:08","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T11:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/?p=6982"},"modified":"2021-06-07T13:24:10","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T11:24:10","slug":"what-is-email-spoofing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/what-is-email-spoofing\/","title":{"rendered":"What is email spoofing?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time-approximately:<\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

Email spoofing is a form of cyber attack in which a hacker sends an email that has been manipulated to seem as if it originated from a trusted source.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Peter<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Peter Loshin<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email spoofing is a popular tactic used in\u00a0phishing\u00a0and\u00a0spam\u00a0campaigns because people are more likely to open an email when they think it has been sent by a known sender. The goal of email spoofing is to trick recipients into opening or responding to the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why email spoofing is important<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Although most spoofed emails can be easily detected and can be remedied by simply deleting the message, some varieties can cause serious problems and pose security risks. For example, a spoofed email may pretend to be from a well-known shopping website, asking the recipient to provide sensitive data, such as a password or credit card number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternatively, a spoofed email may include a link that installs malware on the user’s device if clicked. A common\u00a0example of business email compromise\u00a0(BEC) involves spoofing emails from the chief executive officer (CEO) or chief financial officer (CFO) of a company requesting a wire transfer or internal system access credentials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reasons for email spoofing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In addition to phishing, attackers use spoofed email for the following reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • Hide the fake sender’s real identity.<\/li>
  • Bypass spam filters and blocklists. Users can minimize this threat by blocklisting internet service providers (ISPs) and\u00a0Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.<\/li>
  • Pretend to be a trusted individual — a colleague or a friend — to elicit confidential information.<\/li>
  • Pretend to be a reliable organization — for example, posing as a financial firm to get access to credit card data.<\/li>
  • Commit\u00a0identity theft\u00a0by impersonating a targeted victim and requesting personally identifiable information (PII).<\/li>
  • Damage the sender’s reputation.<\/li>
  • Launch and spread malware hidden in attachments.<\/li>
  • Conduct a\u00a0man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack\u00a0to seize sensitive data from individuals and organizations.<\/li>
  • Obtain access to sensitive data collected by third-party vendors.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    What’s the difference between phishing, spoofing and domain impersonation?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Cybercriminals often use spoofing as part of a phishing attack. Phishing is a method used to obtain data by faking an email address and sending an email that looks like it is coming from a trusted source that could reasonably ask for such information. The goal is to make victims click on a link or download an attachment that will install malware on their system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Spoofing is also related to domain impersonation, in which an email address that is similar to another email address is used. In domain impersonation, an email may come from an address such as customerservice@amaz0n.co, while, in a spoofing attack, the fake sender’s address will look genuine, such as customerservice@amazon.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How email spoofing works<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Email spoofing can be easily achieved with a working Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server and common email platform, such as Outlook or Gmail. Once an email message is composed, the scammer can forge fields found within the message header, such as the FROM, REPLY-TO and RETURN-PATH addresses. When the recipient gets the email, it appears to come from the forged address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This is possible to execute because SMTP does not provide a way to authenticate addresses. Although protocols and methods have been developed to combat email spoofing, adoption of those methods has been slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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