What if someone impersonated your business and they ruined your reputation, which would be rather bad, don’t you think? Well, it happens daily and most people do not even know that it is happening. It is happening digitally through email, and you are allowing it to happen. It is called Email Spoofing.
Email Spoofing Case Study
I received a call from one of our hosting clients who advised that one of his clients received an invoice from him with incorrect banking details, he was upset and afraid and could not understand how this had happened, was his email hacked? How did they use his email address? How did they know about the invoice he had sent earlier in the day?
The investigation was quick and easy. The customer who he sent the invoice to was the first weak link, their email had been compromised and the hacker had intercepted the mail, this usually happens when a link is click on and you are asked to enter your email address and password to “release mails” or “activate your account that has been suspended.” The hacker then sets up a filter so that every email with the word “Invoice” get routed to them and they then spoof the email account of the sender with a new invoice and different banking details.
So, what exactly is Email Spoofing?
It is basically where the sender uses your email address in the email by modifying the headers when they send the mail, it looks like it is from your email, but it is not. Sending email like this is extremely easy, receiving email by somebody else is not as it requires a login and only you can provide that, and sometimes you are tricked into doing it.
How can you protect yourself against email spoofing?
It’s actually quite easy to set up and do and your hosting company can do this for you. At Rhino Hosting we set up the basics for free, so if you do not authorize other senders to use your domain email, for example your accounting software etc., then it takes a couple of minutes, if you do make use of external mailers, then it takes a bit longer and you can read more about that our DMARC guide
Practical checks for suspicious email
- Check that the sender address matches the organisation you expect.
- Be cautious when an email creates urgency or requests banking, login or other sensitive information.
- Do not open unexpected links or attachments until you have verified the request through a separate trusted channel.
- Use SPF, DKIM and DMARC together to help receiving mail systems identify unauthorised messages that claim to use your domain.
If you would like to know more, chat to us at Rhino Hosting by popping us a mail to info@rhinohosting.co.za