What is a Spoofing Message?
As the name might suggest, spoofing is the act of falsifying messages to trick someone into thinking that it’s coming from a legitimate source.
There are various types of spoofing, including email spoofing, caller ID spoofing, website spoofing, IP address spoofing, SMS spoofing, and DNS server spoofing.
In email spoofing, the email address is usually very close to a real email address, making it seem like it’s coming from a legitimate source. However, there may be a typo hidden somewhere. For example, the address of the sender might be info info@eHealthechnologies.com instead of info info@eHealthTechnologies.com
A very astute employee might notice that the domain name is wrong in the first address.
However, distracted and unwitting employees rarely check for these minor mistakes.
Spoofing could be a small, personal prank or the beginning of a disastrous data breach that causes organizations to lose customers’ trust and millions of dollars in lawsuits. This is why it’s critical to train our employees to be more vigilant and place other preventive measures to filter spoofed messages.
How exactly does spoofing work, and how do we avoid it? Keep reading to find out!
How Does Spoofing Work?
Website Spoofing
With website spoofing, all the attacker has to do is create a replica of the domain they’re pretending to be. They’ll use legitimate logos, fonts, formats, and words to trick you into thinking that the website is safe for you to enter your personal information.
The thing to look out for in website spoofing is the web address, as it often looks similar but has a typo to it.
SMS and Call Spoofing
In SMS and call spoofing, attackers use third-party software that changes the phone number they’re using into an alphanumeric format, resembling a real phone number.
This software was initially used by law enforcement, government agencies, and companies, so their number will be easily recognizable. However, they have also been misused by fraudsters to trick their victims.
Attackers will send SMS text messages or spam phone calls from a falsified phone number, often with “urgent” action items. They’ll even often use your area code, so it seems more legitimate.
Email Spoofing
Email spoofing is another common method scammers use to get what they want.
One method of spoofing email messages is by changing the “from” email address into something that looks legitimate or very close to an email address/sender ID you might expect. The attacker might be using another email client or scripts found online to change their sender address.
To prevent email spoofing, there are three recommended email authentication protocols you should have in your system: Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DKIM, and DMARC.
Normally, spoofing attacks are combined with phishing to convince you to either click a link, enter sensitive login details, credit card numbers, manually transfer money, or interact with the attacker in any way.
Because phishing attacks usually combine spoofing and social engineering tactics, spoofing and phishing are often used interchangeably, even if they’re two separate methods. Other methods that combine these two include business email compromise (BEC), spear phishing, and whale phishing.
How to Avoid Becoming a Victim of Spoofing Messages
So, how do we protect ourselves and our organization from spoofing messages?
Here are a few tips to avoid an attack and further bolster our security efforts!
- Avoid clicking on links prompting urgent action that you didn’t initiate
An example of this is a verification email from a service or software, even though you didn’t sign up, log in, or interact with them recently. These messages make you feel like something needs to be done quickly, making you more likely to click the link.
If you notice any strange activity in your inbox, approach with caution as it may be a spoofed email.
The link may contain malware or lead to a spoofed website where it looks like a legitimate login page to the service. To be safe, go to the platform directly, avoiding the link in the message. From there, check on your account, or you can even reach out to a representative to report the spoofing activity and/or ensure there is no actual action required of you.
- Avoid clicking links in general from an unprompted or unidentified source
This is a good rule of thumb for whenever you receive a suspicious email. If you believe the source is legitimate, go to the page by directly typing the address into your browser instead of clicking the link. Manually typing the link may help you identify any typos that are the telltale sign of a scam. Clicking infected links, whether in text messages, email messages, or through social media phishing, will let malware into your system and may extract sensitive information and compromise any data.
- Invest in malware systems and email encryption
While most email service providers have a good spam filter, some spam emails will still get through your filter. It takes only one very convincing email to expose yourself or your organization to the risk of a data breach.
Cybersecurity products may come as an endpoint security system that blocks and notifies end-users of suspicious messages. Additionally, anti-malware software will scan your system for known threats, remove the compromised item so your network stays clean, and protect it from the risk of cyberattacks.
- Don’t open attachments from unknown senders
Similar to links, attachments are a gateway for malware to slip into your system. Downloading attachments, especially from unknown sources, pose a tremendous risk to your system. The attachment may also be disguised as another file type (for example: text.txt.exe, which will look like a text file with the .txt extension if using the default setting on a file manager)—which isn’t a good sign as most devices hide the file type by default in their file manager.
- Get familiar with what types of emails/messages are likely scams (emails promising exclusive offers, money, etc.)
Besides relying on our preventive software, such as antivirus and endpoint protection, you should get familiar with what messages are likely scams. Train your employees to think critically every time a suspicious email lands in their inbox. They may go through their inbox in a distracted state, which is what cybercriminals are hoping for.
Exercise caution whenever you encounter suspicious emails, such as emails that are unprompted, out of character, requesting money or information, or offers that are too good to be true. Get to know common scam terminology and methods and make sure that your employees are also aware of them to help them be more careful.
- Check for bad grammar or spelling
Typos, especially in the sender address in case of email spoofing or the website address, are the most obvious red flag in detecting spoofed messages.
Since these attacks are often rushed, scammers rarely double-check the messages they send. It’s highly likely that the message sent will sound awkward, out of character, or have a lot of spelling mistakes. Look out for these types of mistakes and confirm with the sender through another channel if you suspect the message is a spoof.
- Google the contents of the email or message
Fortunately, these scammers aren’t as creative as they’d like to be. Many scamming campaigns are reused or taken from a template, so the format is more or less the same. If you receive a suspicious message, you can look up the content on Google and see if the message is legitimate or not.
It’s highly likely that this isn’t the first time this type of message showed up in anyone’s inbox and that there are other people who have questioned whether or not it’s a scam.
- Train and get trained on spoofing prevention
It’s easy to recite what you should do if you’ve already been the target of a spoofing message. However, it’s harder to notice a spoof in practice.
That’s why effective training is needed to increase the awareness of all employees. Additionally, consider simulation training to make sure your employees stay vigilant and show them just how deceptive spoofed messages can be.
Protect Against Spoofing with Inspired eLearning
Installing malware and email encryption software is just the starting point to email security. One of the best ways we and our organization can avoid becoming a victim of spoofing is by undergoing effective security awareness training.
Today, spammers and scammers are getting more elusive and creative with their attempts. This is especially true with the increase in remote work.