Email Security

    Blocking Impersonation, Phishing and Malware Attacks with DMARC

    Combine DMARC Analyzer’s email channel visibility and reporting with Mimecast DMARC enforcement and Targeted Threat Protection. 

    by Dan Sloshberg
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    Email impersonation attacks, or email fraud, continues to grow, with Mimecast’s latest Email Security Risk Assessment pointing to a 22% increase over the previous quarter. Detecting and stopping these increasingly-sophisticated social engineering attacks needs a multi-layered approach.

    Impersonation attacks aim to trick employees into taking action like transferring money or divulging sensitive information. They do this by making it look like the request has come from someone they know and trust – like a CEO or CFO for example.

    Types of Impersonation Attacks

    • Lookalike domains
    • Display name spoofing
    • Newly registered domains
    • Reply-to mismatch
    • Social engineering language in the subject / body of any email
    • Owned domains (unauthorized)

     The last item above, the illegitimate use of an organizations owned domains, where using Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) authentication is the best defensive strategy. It works by preventing anyone except for specifically authorized senders to send mail using an organizations domain. There are third-party senders like CRM and marketing automation systems that need to send mail and these can be authorized while others are blocked, or rejected.

    Mimecast and DMARC Analyzer for Increased Attack Protection

    Mimecast’s new alliance partnership with DMARC Analyzer can help joint customers better protect themselves against these attacks.

    Mimecast’s gateway and Targeted Threat Protection – Impersonation Protect service combines multiple indicators of compromise to stop attacks using most of the tactics listed, from targeting employees. Where DMARC Analyzer comes in, is to prevent the unauthorized use of an organizations own domain(s) to attack their customers, suppliers, other external parties and even their own employees.

    Why You Should Use DMARC Analyzer

    DMARC Analyzer’s cloud service provides 360-degree email channel visibility, reporting and validation to give organizations insight into any unauthorized domain use, helping them move to a DMARC reject policy faster and with more confidence. Designed for self-service and with user-friendly charts and reporting, DMARC Analyzer helps customers to cut through the complexities of DMARC enforcement to protect their brand against misuse.

    The data protection solution also allows organizations to monitor domain use on an ongoing basis to help ensure consistent policy enforcement with minimal false positives.

    Relying on employees to accurately recognize if they are targeted by this type of attack is not enough. Layering Mimecast and DMARC Analyzer as complementary solutions delivers joint customers a better level of defense against all types of impersonation attacks.

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