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Understanding Malicious URL Protection and Why It's Important for Email Security

Email assaults are continually developing, and the digital threat landscape is considerably more hazardous than ever due to the "new normal" we've witnessed during the pandemic. According to security analysts, COVID-19 has resulted in a 600% surge in phishing attempts, with the bulk of these assaults relying on malicious links to steal passwords and transmit malware. According to research, one out of every ten employees will end up clicking on a malicious link. One incorrect click may result in an account breach, data theft, financial loss, reputation harm, and lost productivity.

In order to defend against phishing, business email compromise (BEC), and other attacks utilizing malicious URLs, harmful URL protection must be implemented as part of a complete email security plan. You might now be wondering what harmful URL protection is and how it works.

Well, we've got you covered! This blog will demystify the concept of harmful URL protection and show you why it is non-negotiable when it comes to protecting your email from persistent and ever-evolving cyber attacks.

URL Protection: The Basics

Despite the fact that HTML email allows readers to inspect the destination of a link by hovering over it, the majority of us do not follow this security best practice. Malicious URL prevention removes the chance of a potentially disastrous ‘wrong click’ that may lead to the submission of credentials or the loss of control of one's computer by downloading ransomware, spyware, or other malicious executable malware.

While many email security solutions utilize URL rewriting to detect dangerous links, this method frequently gives consumers a false sense of security and causes more harm than good. While IT specialists may understand the process of URL rewriting, many people may believe that any 'Safe' link is indeed safe, which is not always the case. As a result, URL rewriting may increase the possibility of visitors clicking on fraudulent links as a side effect.

How to Avoid Malicious URLs

As a recipient of an email with a suspicious and potentially dangerous URL, you should first verify the email and website's validity. You can do so by double-checking the following:

Verifying Senders’ Addresses

In fact, faked email addresses are used in the majority of fraudulent emails. Although the email may appear to be from a well-known firm, the sender's email address may reveal the sender's malicious intentions.

Display Name Mismatch

The sender's email address may be totally different from the firm from which the email purports to come. This is a clear indicator of a potentially harmful communication, and you should ignore any requests or demands made by the sender. This includes following any links in the email or calling unknown phone numbers listed in the email.

Typosquatting

Criminals might fool you into thinking an email is from a reputable organization by using a technique known as typosquatting. They accomplish this by creating email accounts that appear to be from reputable businesses. To make their domain appear authentic, they modify a letter or two. If you're in a rush and don't pay attention to the sender's email domain, you'll believe the email originated from a reliable and trustworthy sender.

Inconsistency

If you read a fraudulent email, you'll notice discrepancies indicating that the email and any links embedded in it are phony and possibly harmful. These anomalies indicate that the email is a hoax, and you should not click on any of the possibly harmful URLs contained inside it.

Look for SSL Certificates on Websites

SSL/TLS certificates are commonly used by legitimate websites. These certificates provide websites with organizational identity and encryption. The organization that owns a website has been validated by a trusted third party called a certificate authority, which ensures that the website is authentic (CA). If a padlock appears in the browser address bar and HTTPS appears at the beginning of the URL, the website employs a secure, encrypted connection to safeguard data in transit.

ALSO READ:- Phishing Email Attacks: Examples and Solutions

Cybercriminals are always devising new methods to deceive you and other innocent victims. They do this by adding malicious URLs in emails, putting them in false advertisements, and distributing them through a variety of other techniques.

Remember that a criminal is planning new methods to hurt you right now, whether it's tempting you to click on dangerous links or gaining access to your IT systems and data. This is why cybersecurity cannot be accomplished in a one-time effort or passive participation. It's a never-ending, ever-evolving process that needs constant vigilance and consistent monitoring.

Email assaults are continually developing, and the digital threat landscape is considerably more hazardous than ever due to the "new normal" we've witnessed during the pandemic. According to security analysts, COVID-19 has resulted in a 600% surge in phishing attempts, with the bulk of these assaults relying on malicious links to steal passwords and transmit malware. According to research, one out of every ten employees will end up clicking on a malicious link. One incorrect click may result in an account breach, data theft, financial loss, reputation harm, and lost productivity.

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Domino's Pizza implements DMARC as part of a broader security strategy.

In order to protect customers from "fake Domino's phishing attacks," Domino's Pizza Enterprises has deployed domain-based message authentication, reporting, and conformance (DMARC).

Back in early 2020, the quick service restaurant (QSR) operator stated its security team reviewed "all important email domains used by the firm and third-party partners to determine how email was being handled."

Domino's said in a sustainability report issued today that "the team then implemented specific DMARC records that clearly identified who could send emails on our behalf." [pdf]

“This was then monitored, before progressing to ensure only external systems with approval from Domino’s could send emails on our behalf.”

The DMARC installation was finished in March 2021, according to the pizza Enterprises, “protecting and verifying more than 51 email domains and more than 144 million emails per month.”

“The project protects not only our customers and the public, but also the Domino’s brand, and increases the likelihood genuine Domino’s emails will be delivered,” the company said.

“It's important that when a customer receives an email purporting to be from Domino's, it's sent by our teams, not by someone posing as Domino's - a major problem in the online retail world.”

The DMARC project was part of a larger set of security initiatives undertaken by Domino's over the past year, some of which are still ongoing.

In the financial year just gone, Domino’s said it conducted “data mapping exercises” across the group to improve security and governance protections for sensitive data.

The company also made sure that administrative accounts and “those that have access to large volumes of data” had multi-factor authentication enabled.

It also started work on a business continuity planning and disaster recovery programmer aimed at “identifying those systems, services, and data that are critical to the running of our company and work, as well as a risk mitigation programmer for any risks that may occur.”

On top of protecting outbound emails, Domino’s said “more than 10 million online ordering customer accounts were protected this year from account takeover attacks”.

It also said it processed 60 million security ‘insights’ every day, “generated from more than 26 different systems and services that we log and monitor.”

It added that machine learning is used to triage these event notifications to aid its security operations team.

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DMARC, the Solution for your Phishing Problems

Phishing attacks are a significant threat to any company. It may significantly harm the brand and reputation, as well as cause clients to lose faith and leave. The attackers can spam or phish using your brand logo and emails that look exactly like yours. Even you won't be able to tell the difference between a fake email and one received from your servers. SPF has been already discussed in terms of how it validates the outgoing mail server. Another DKIM technology is used for email signatures. Both are used by Domain-based Message Authentication (DMARC) to support popular actions. Double protection to reduce the risk of phishing and a monitoring system to help with management.

Why SPF and DKIM are not enough?

The objective of SPF - Sender Policy Framework is to validate the senders' servers. The receivers look up the IP address in the SPF record. It should be the same as the IP address of the sender's domain.

A issue with the SPF record is that it only applies to the domains' return paths, not to the domain that appears in the "From" field on the user interface. DMARC corrects this issue by aligning, or matching, the visible “From” and the SPF-authenticated server.

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is an acronym for DomainKeys Identified Mail. DKIM can be used by the owner to sign the emails that it sends. In the header of the emails, there will be extra data (encrypted) that can be confirmed using DNS. This technology isn't perfect either. Many businesses fail to rotate the key, which may be a major issue. Another issue that DMARC addresses is this. It comes with rotating keys.

DMARC

DMARC is a protocol for authentication, policy, and reporting. It uses both SPF and DKIM, as well as connection to the “From” domain name, procedures for processing incoming email in the event of failure, and, most importantly, a sender report. The sender will be able to see whether there is an issue and take action as a result.

The primary goal of DMARC is to prevent direct domain spoofing. If an attacker attempts to send email from an address that is not authorized, DMARC will identify and prohibit it.

How does DMARC works?

We've already mentioned that DMARC uses policies. They are set by the administrator, who defines the email authentication processes and what the receiving email server should do if an email violates a policy.

When the receiving email server gets a new email, it makes a DNS lookup to check the DMARC. It will look for:

·        If the DKIM signature is valid.

·        The IP address of the sender, if is one of the allowed by him (SPF record).

·        If the header shows proper “domain alignment”.

With all of the above in consideration, the server DMARC policy to accept, reject or flag the email.

In the end, the server will send a message to the sender with a report.

Benefits for the sender of the email

·        Shows that the email uses authentication – SPF and DKIM.

·        Receives a feedback about the sent email.

·        Policy for failed email.

Benefits for the receiver of the email

·        Provide authentication for the incoming emails

·        Evaluating the SPF and DKIM

·        See what the sender prefer – policy

·        Returns feedback to the sender

Conclusion about DMARC

DMARC can significantly reduce the number of spam and fraud emails. It isn't completely bulletproof, but it provides far more protection than the other two options - SPF and DKIM. It's also nice to have reporting.

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It's a human issue when it comes to email security.

Phishing is the underlying cause of 32% of security breaches, according to research. Email is the most common point of entry for malware, providing access in 94 percent of cases.

Just last week, the UK government's Cyber Security Breaches Survey revealed that this worrying trend has not changed: 91% of big organizations are most likely to report phishing attacks as the source of a data breach, up from 72% to 83% in the previous four years. In the meanwhile, reports of other threats, such as computer viruses, have significantly decreased.

Regardless as to whether anti-malware software, firewalls, Sender Policy Framework (SPF), or Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) solutions are in place, phishing emails are reaching organizations and individuals at an unprecedented rate, causing more consistent bad impacts than many other security threats combined. Due to the severity of certain phishing attacks and the scale of the businesses attacked, they have even made headlines.

FatFace recently paid a $2 million ransom after cybercriminals infiltrated their network via a phishing email, harvesting 200GB of data, including workers' bank account information. The original ransom of $8 million would have essentially put the shop out of business, as it was only making 25% of its usual revenue due to the pandemic. This should act as a chilling reminder of the devastating effects that poor email hygiene can have on businesses of all sizes.

So, what is the solution for companies like FatFace, or for people who are desperate to avoid being victims of this level of cybercrime? In the end, bolstering email security requires finding a balance between defensive technology and adequate employee training.

Even if a firm has the most secure defensive system in place, it will still be vulnerable unless it has a company-wide security-first attitude and a thorough awareness of threats and vulnerabilities.

Fostering a culture of training and education

When it comes to evaluating cyber defenses, culture is a significant issue, with a recent poll finding that 65 percent of firms who did not deploy a zero trust security approach did so because it did not fit with their company culture.

However, in defending a company's IT infrastructure, a security-first attitude is becoming increasingly vital, and organizations must examine if their culture prioritizes security or cultivates vulnerabilities. If they aren't completely revamping their security posture with a framework like zero trust, businesses should at the very least be regularly training and counselling their employees on how to identify and react to a malicious email.

Outsourcing white hat hacking and phishing campaigns that mimic real-world assaults should be included in adequate cybersecurity training and awareness to teach employees what they are doing wrong and how to distinguish between a dangerous and a safe email in the future. Importantly, when workers spot and report questionable conduct or communications, they should be rewarded in order to encourage continued vigilance.

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The Top 5 DMARC Solutions for Your Business

Discover the top DMARC solutions for business. Examine their features such as phishing protection, enhanced security, and brand reputation protection.

DMARC (Domain-Based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance) is a mechanism for ensuring that emails sent and received by your email domains are legitimate. DMARC provides two critical security functions to organizations. As one, it helps businesses to keep a better eye on their email channels. Organizations can observe what emails are being sent and received, as well as their reputation. Second, organizations can block malicious emails from being sent through their domains, protecting their clients and customers from phishing attacks and spoofed domain messages.

Businesses can use a variety of DMARC solutions to improve the security of their emails. These solutions assist organizations in activating and configuring DMARC protocols, providing understandable DMARC reports that give visibility into email channels, and allowing them to create DMARC policies that prevent malicious emails from being sent from their domains. We'll walk you through the best DMARC email security solutions for businesses in this blog. We'll go over their most important features, as well as what their users have to say about them and which businesses they're most suited for. Let's get started!

1.  Mimecast (DMARC Analyzer)

DMARC Analyzer provides more visibility and control over their email channels, allowing them to stop email attacks and protect their brands from abuse. DMARC Analyzer is provided as a SaaS, making it easier for businesses to manage complex DMARC installations and to monitor and oversee DMARC insights.

DMARC Analyzer offers a variety of features and reports to assist organizations in managing email and avoiding security risks. This includes a DNS time line, aggregate DMARC reports, automated alerts and reporting, automatic subdomain discovery, and automated subdomain discovery. These features make it easier for businesses to deploy and take advantage of DMARC. DMARC analyzer also offers a comprehensive knowledge base and support staff to assist companies in better managing DMARC.

2.  EmailAuth.io

EmailAuth Suite is one of the world's best platform for Email Authentication and has been serving customers since the introduction of DMARC in 2012. EmailAuth has been termed as the "Simplest" dashboard by Security Professionals and is also vastly appreciated by other industry experts. Their ability to convert complicated DMARC reports into plain English is what makes us one of the leading providers globally.

Their Managed Services Team will help with the complexities of DMARC, like SPF/DKIM Alignment, DMARC Overrides, Shadow IT Discovery, and Coordination with Third-Parties to ensure you can get to enforcement at the earliest.

Managed Services Inclusions

·        Customer Onboarding and Dashboard Training.

·        Alerts and Proactive Recommendations in case of Attacks.

·        Assisting you in SPF and DKIM alignment.

·        Periodic meetings with our DMARC team for recommendations.

·        Report Generation and submission with proper analysis.

·        Sharing Industry Best Practices and Federated Threat Intel.

·        24X7 Support on Phone and Email.      

 3.  Barracuda Sentinel

Barracuda Sentinel is a cutting-edge email security service that protects email platforms from all types of fraud and phishing attacks. Sentinel is a post-delivery protection solution that sits within the inbox rather than on the email perimeter. Sentinel is used to defend businesses against sophisticated email attacks such as spear-phishing, business email compromise, and account takeover. It also offers automatic DMARC reporting, which includes aggregation and visualization.

Sentinel is integrated directly into Office 365, allowing it to understand business communication patterns using machine learning algorithms. Sentinel can identify abnormal and malicious email attacks using this contextual information, and remove them before they reached the user. This is especially effective against attacks such as phishing and business email compromise that can be hard to detect with traditional secure email gateway technologies.

4.  Agari Brand Protection

Agari provides a number of cloud email security solutions that are meant to protect companies from advanced email threats, provide rapid detection and response, and prevent brand abuse. To fight spear-phishing, business email compromise, and account takeover, Agari Phishing Defense sits inside the email inbox and uses machine learning technologies. Agari Brand Protection guards your customers and partners from phishing attacks. To protect your brand and improve digital engagement, automated DMARC email authentication and enforcement.

DMARC implementation is automated with Agari Brand Protection. Auto-generating and hosting relevant DNS records, as well as automated procedures to ensure DMARC records are correct, are all key features. Even in complex sending environments with hundreds of domains, Agari provides companies more visibility into their DMARC reports and makes it easy to set reject policies for malicious emails. Agari helps in the protection of domains against spoofing and lookalike attacks, as well as quick remediation and removal. In addition, Agari improves the visibility and analytics of DMARC reports.

5.  ValiMail

With DMARC protection, ValiMail helps protect organizations from account compromise and phishing attacks. ValiMail is a cloud-based email platform that easily integrates with Microsoft Office 365 and Google G Suite. ValiMail provides three levels of email security. Defend, which utilizes DMARC to defend inboxes from email impersonation, Enforce, which utilizes DMARC to prevent phishing attacks, and Amplify, which helps businesses to manage their brand identity over email with more visibility and control.

By validating emails at the sender level, ValiMail uses DMARC to avoid domain impersonation, such as messages from lookalike and fraudulent domains. Emails that seem to be malicious are not allowed to reach your inbox. ValiMail also assists organizations in implementing DMARC-based robust sender identity validation to ensure that attackers cannot impersonate their domain or brand. ValiMail Amplify then allows organizations to control the images and information contained in email messages, resulting in higher open rates and overall success for email marketing.

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By 2025, the market for DMARC software is expected to reach 463.5 million dollars.

According to this study, over the next five years the DMARC Software market will register a 55.5%% CAGR in terms of revenue, the global market size will reach $ 463.5 million by 2025, from $ 79 million in 2019. , this report presents the global revenue market share of key companies in DMARC Software business, shared in Chapter 3. The DMARC Software market research report emphasizes on the predominant trends and the factors stimulating industry expansion as well as those hampering it. Besides, it provides insights about the future growth matrix of this domain by comparing the past and present business scenario. Further, the document meticulously defines the size and shares of the market and its segments, uncovering the top dollar opportunities in the process.

The business intelligence report on DMARC Software market empowers businesses and other stakeholders with several practices that can effectively tackle the current and upcoming challenges in this domain, so as to amass high profits over the stipulated timeframe. Besides, it covers all other important factors governing the market dynamics, such as the growth drivers, opportunities, and predominant trends.

Moreover, the report expounds the factors responsible for the development of each market segment, emphasizing on the top revenue prospects in the process. Additionally, it compares the past and present business scenario to provide a clearer picture of the performance of the market and sub-market over the forecast period.

This report presents a comprehensive overview, market shares, and growth opportunities of DMARC Software market by product type, application, key manufacturers and key regions and countries. This study specially analyses the impact of Covid-19 outbreak on the DMARC Software, covering the supply chain analysis, impact assessment to the DMARC Software market size growth rate in several scenarios, and the measures to be undertaken by DMARC Software companies in response to the COVID-19 epidemic. Segmentation by type: breakdown data from 2015 to 2020 in Section 2.3; and forecast to 2025 in section 10.7. Cloud Based Web Based

Segmentation by application: breakdown data from 2015 to 2020, in Section 2.4; and forecast to 2025 in section 10.8. Large Enterprises SMEs This report also splits the market by region: Breakdown data in Chapter 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Americas United States Canada Mexico Brazil APAC China Japan Korea Southeast Asia India Australia Europe Germany France UK Italy Russia Middle East & Africa Egypt South Africa Israel Turkey GCC Countries The report also presents the market competition landscape and a corresponding detailed analysis of the major vendor/manufacturers in the market. The key manufacturers covered in this report: Breakdown data in in Chapter 3. Dmarcian DMARC Analyzer, EmailAuth OnDMARC (Red Sift) EasyDMARC (AGOPS Solutions LLC.) …In addition, this report discusses the key drivers influencing market growth, opportunities, the challenges and the risks faced by key players and the market as a whole. It also analyzes key emerging trends and their impact on present and future development.

Research objectives To study and analyze the global DMARC Software market size by key regions/countries, type and application, history data from 2015 to 2019, and forecast to 2025. To understand the structure of DMARC Software market by identifying its various sub segments. Focuses on the key global DMARC Software players, to define, describe and analyze the value, market share, market competition landscape, SWOT analysis and development plans in next few years. To analyze the DMARC Software with respect to individual growth trends, future prospects, and their contribution to the total market. To share detailed information about the key factors influencing the growth of the market (growth potential, opportunities, drivers, industry-specific challenges and risks). To project the size of DMARC Software submarkets, with respect to key regions (along with their respective key countries). To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches and acquisitions in the market. To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.

Besides, the document deeply explores the competitive arena, uncovering the position of top contenders and new entrants in the industry. It further gauges the COVID-19 footprint for a stronger realization of the growth patterns of this business space for the ensuing years.

Key points from the DMARC Software market report table of contents:

Product segment

·        Product range: , Cloud Based, Web Based,

·        Total remuneration and industry share of each product segment.

·        Projected growth rate of each product type over the analysis timeframe.

·        Application scope

·        Application spectrum: , Large Enterprises, SMEs,

·        Market share and product demand of each application segment.

·        Growth rate of every application segment over the assessment period.

·        Geographical outline

·        Overall revenue and sales amassed by each regional market.

·        Estimations for the growth rate of the regional markets over the study period.

·        Competitive dashboard

·        Leading players in DMARC Software market: , Dmarcian, DMARC Analyzer, EmailAuth, OnDMARC (Red Sift), EasyDMARC (AGOPS Solutions LLC.), …, .

·        Market concentration ratio assessment.

·        Exhaustive information on each key player, inclusive of manufacturing across the serviced areas, product portfolio, and business profiles.

·        Records of the pricing model, sales graph, market share, and other financials of the mentioned companies.

·        Collection of latest data on mergers, acquisitions, and expansion roadmaps of listed companies.

Enquiry about DMARC Software market report before Buying at: https://www.marketstudyreport.com/enquiry-before-buying/2463538?utm_source=marketwatch.com&utm_medium=SHR

To conclude, the document contains a complete examination of DMARC Software market by scrutinizing the various industry segments. Furthermore, it elaborates on the supply chain, including upstream providers, downstream consumers, and distribution channels, to guide businesses in effectively launching their products in the industry.

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DMARC Policy Enforcement Is CISOs’ #1 Email Security Objective

The number of email domains using Domain based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance is expected to skyrocket by 2020. (DMARC). According to a recent analysis by DMARC.org, this number is expected to increase by 43% over the prior year, hitting 2.7 million in 2021.

The problem is that, even after implementing DMARC, effective domain security remains a work in progress. This is due to the fact that the vast majority of these domains have no policy regarding unauthenticated emails.

DMARC – ONE SOLUTION TO MANY PROBLEMS

DMARC is an email authentication protocol that helps in the protection of an email domain against threat actors that spoof it and send emails on your behalf. As a result, protecting it from cyber criminals is essential, as cyber criminals may spoof your email domains and use them to carry out malicious activities. This can be hugely harmful to your company's reputation. Moreover, it may harm your company's client relationships, business reach, and credibility.

DMARC basically monitors two email authentication protocols – Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM). These authentication protocols have 3 basic purposes –

1.     Ensuring that the sender’s emails are secured by both key authentication standards, SPF and DKIM.

2.     Sending out orders to receiving mail servers in the situation when neither of the authentication methods passes.

3.     Giving a path to the receiving server to revert the sender about messages that pass or fail the DMARC assessment

These are the reasons why DMARC should be implemented to secure your email domain. As a result, it can protect your emails from ending up in the junk folder of the recipient. The lack of or absence of email domain security can result in the organization's business reach being stifled. Your company's revenue can rocket if you increase your email engagement and deliverability rates.

THE CURRENT SCENARIO

As previously stated, the number of domains that have adopted DMARC has increased significantly in 2021. However, many of these domains still do not have a policy in place to reject or quarantine emails that are not verified.

Three policies when an email fails DMARC authentication:

·  None – With this policy, the email receiver won’t do anything with the emails. The email goes into the inbox of the receiver.

·  Quarantine – With this policy, the emails that fail DMARC checks will be sent into the spam folder of the receiver.

·  Reject – With this policy, the emails that fail DMARC checks will be totally rejected by the receiver.

Organizations are now recognizing the importance of DMARC. However, there is still work to be done to ensure that a policy is in place for emails that fail DMARC authentication.

According to a USENIX study published in 2018, 60% of domains with a mail server had an SPF record, but only 6% had a DMARC policy for emails that refused to authenticate.

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Emails, as you know, are very easy to Spoof. Criminals love it because phishing emails that appear to come from senders you trust, especially well-known brands, are easy to bait and exploit.

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When it comes to #phishing, people are the attack surface, opening the front door and letting the attackers easily bypass technical defenses. But people are the solution as well. A #security-minded company culture is the best defense.