3 Major Email Security Standards Prove Too Porous For The Task
DARKReading, Tuesday, August 15,2023
Nearly 90% of malicious emails manage to get past SPF, DKIM, or DMARC, since threat actors are apparently using the same filters as legitimate users.
Email security standards are proving porous where malicious email attacks are concerned, since attackers use a deceptive link or new domains that comply with the same email security standards regular users employ to blunt threats like phishing, according to a vendor report released this week.
Security firm Cloudflare found that the vast majority (89%) of unwanted messages passed a check of at least one of the three major email security standards: Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), or Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC). SPF typically uses a domain-name record to indicate which servers can send mail on behalf of the domain, while DKIM allows senders to sign parts of a message, such as the "from" address, to attest to their validity. Finally, DMARC is a way of specifying policies, which can include attestation by SPF and DKIM processing.