TL;DR, Missing SPF records are a prevalent and long-standing security vulnerability that compromises sensitive data. Our team chose to scan the 500 top-ranked Alexa sites for it in order to gain a clearer picture of how pervasive the problem is. We discovered that less than half of those domains had appropriately enabled email authentication to prevent spoofed emails from being sent from their domains, putting consumers at risk of receiving fake emails purporting to come from domains they trust. To avoid faked emails, all systems must be manually set to the maximum level of authentication. Unfortunately, the procedure is difficult, and servers are frequently misconfigured.
Every day, 193 billion emails are sent, according to 2014 research. The email has evolved into a vital part of our daily lives, yet it was initially developed in 1982. Back then, the Internet was different, and the risks we face today were not clear.
When someone sends an email using a falsified sender address, this is known as email spoofing. Because email lacks built-in authentication, spammers, phishers, and attackers utilize spoofing to exploit the confidence that the faked domain holds and trick users into disclosing critical information.
To safeguard a domain, you must take action and set up authentication protocols on your email servers, such as SPF and DMARC. However, it is typical for SPF to be misconfigured, putting businesses in danger without their knowledge.
Sending an email that appears to be from a bank and asking the user to submit their credit card details is an example of spoofing. This is also a typical method of obtaining passwords.
The same technique may be used to deceive the media. One example is when someone sent an email purporting to be a news release from the Swedish firm Fingerprint Cards, saying that they were going to be acquired by Samsung. The news was released in the media, influencing stock purchasers and raising the stock price of Fingerprint Cards by 50%.
The solutions available today: SPF, DMARC, and DKIM
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are the three options available today to defend oneself from counterfeit emails. To successfully prevent faked emails from being transmitted, the sending domains, their mail servers, and the receiving system must all be properly set for these higher levels of authentication.
It is relatively simple if you are a minor player and have a strong understanding of your company’s email servers. Make sure SPF and/or DKIM are appropriately configured (SPF is frequently regarded easier), and setup DMARC to either reject or quarantine any failed emails – this means that if you use SPF and someone attempts to send a forged email, it will be refused. Here’s our tutorial on how to accomplish it.
However, if you are a larger organization, this may be more difficult. You must map out every server used by someone in your firm to send emails using your domain. To name a few, support, marketing, and the reset-password email may all utilize separate servers. They will be unable to send emails if they do not include one.
If you feel that you have missed a server, we propose setting DMARC such that it does not reject any emails but instead sends you a report including the emails that should have failed. After ensuring that no servers are overlooked, you modify DMARC to reject emails.
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