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| Part
2#9
We are living in a dangerous world that produces many types of threats and risks to our
organizational mail infrastructure, to our users and to us.
In the current article, I would like to review some of the possible damages that we can
experience in a scenario, in which Spoof or Phishing mail attacks are realized.
The Great Market Of Mail Threats, Possible Damages And Phishing Mail
Attack
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Regarding the threats and risks to our mail infrastructure, there are a variety of threats which we
should be aware of and prepare accordingly.
So why did I prefer to talk about the specific threat describe as Phishing mail attack, and his
relative the Spoof mail attacks?
The reason is that Phishing mail attacks are very interesting from the risk management and
security perspective and very challenging from the possible solutions perspective.
Phishing mail attacks are the representative of a modern threat that belongs to the famous
family of advanced threats
The main character of Phishing mail attacks is, that this type of attack considered as a very
sophisticated attack that can cause a very serious damage.
To be able to protect our users and our organization from the threat of Phishing mail attack, we
will need to complete a couple of phases:
Be familiar with the specific characters and the behavior (the DNA) of the Phishing mail
attack and Spoof mail attacks. For example, how does Phishing mail attack uses different
tools and methods such as Spoof mail attack for getting the required results.
Be familiar with the possible damages in the case that the Phishing mail attack threat is
realized.
Be familiar with all the common obstacles that prevent us from successfully dealing with
the threat of Spoof E-mail attacks and Phishing mail attacks.
Be familiar with the complexity of solutions cocktail that we need to use for dealing with
Phishing mail attacks and Spoof mail attacks.
Be familiar with the specific characters and the concept of each of the possible solutions,
the strengths and the weaknesses of each of the solutions, etc.
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Bottom line
To acknowledge that the subject of Phishing mail attack is a very serious threat that needs our
full attention.
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Although each of this mail threats that are mentioned above is an Important and respected
threat, in the current article series, I would like to focus on the subject of Mail attacks and
especially on the subject of Spoof mail attack and Phishing mail attacks.
Additional reading
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What is my point?
My point is that if we manage to catch the head of the snake, we can avoid from the of a
snake bite!
If we use a less metaphorically description in case that we manage to identify and block the
Spoof mail attack and Phishing mail attacks, we can prevent the painful results from the attack.
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For example, along the current article series, we will review in details the subject of Spoof mail
attack.
We will review the characters of Spoof mail attack, and the way that we can use for dealing with
a Spoof mail attack (by implementing sender verification mechanisms).
The Spoof mail attack doesnt have a life of its own.
The meaning is that from the attackers point of view, the ability to spoof the senders identity,
have a value only as bridge which will pave the way for the reset of the Phishing mail
attacks.
In case that we will be able to identify and block most of the Spoof mail attack, the derivative is
that we also be able to block most of the Phishing mail attack!
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An important observation is that not all the Phishing mail attack uses Spoof mail attack and in
addition, there is not granted that we will be able to identify 100% of Spoof mail attack.
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The lack of awareness of the risks that involved in Spoof mail and Phishing
mail attacks.
Although it seems like that everyone knows the meaning of Spoof mail and Phishing mail
attacks, the simple truth is that most of the time, most of us, not really understand the huge
impact of this type of attacks, how this attack is implemented, what are the main characters this
attack and so on.
From my personal acquaintance with customers and organizations, there are a number of core
beliefs, that prevent us from dealing with the risks of risks of Spoof mail and Phishing mail:
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The type the above approach, causes us to close our eyes to this Immediate and tangible threat,
and hope that if and when this risk will be realized, we will know how to deal with this issue
or most of the time, find a way to outsource the responsibility to another factor that we can
blame.
The less good news is that in the case of Spoof mail attack and Phishing mail attacks, we can
rely on the famous Murphys law If anything can go wrong, it will!
Alternatively, if you want to put it differently its not a matter of if, its a matter of when.
To emphasize my point, lets do a little test that will enable us to be impressed from the
level of interest regarding two important subjects: Identifying phishing mail, and Kim
Kardashian.
For the purpose of this test, lets use the YouTube site as an indicator of the level of interest.
In the following screenshot, we can see the search results for the term Identifying phishing
mail. We can clearly see that this issue is not a very popular subject.
The sum of the results that deal with this subject of Phishing mail is 700~.
The first result is a video that created a year ago, and the average number of views for the
video results that appear on the first page is measured in hundreds.
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In the next screenshot, we can see the search results for the term Kim Kardashian. We can
clearly see that this issue is a very popular subject.
The sum of the results that deal with this subject is 1, 630, 000~.
The average number of views for the video results that appear on the first page is measured in
thousands, and some video was watched 4,500,000 ~.
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A Little About Spam Mail Before We Continue With The Subject Of Spoof EMail Attacks And Phishing Mail Attacks.
When reading a technical article about the subject of mail security and mail threats, the Phishing
mail attack is frequently described as a subcategory of spam mail.
I am strongly opposed to the above definition because this classification minimizes and reduces
our awareness of the big risk of Phishing mail attack versus spam mail.
If we want to condense the main goal of all the types of mail attacks, the simple answer is to
earn money.
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The main difference between spam mail attack and Phishing mail attack is the way that the
element uses for getting the amount of money.
The similar characters of spam mail and Phishing mail
The common denominator of spam mail and Phishing mail is that way that the E-mail message
is distributed among many destination recipients.
The main target of element that sends spam mail and the element that sends Phishing mail is
to reach the largest possible number of target recipients, by using the option of bulk mail or
mass mail.
The method for getting the E-mail address of the victims, could be similar such as using the
option of Harvested E-mail address.
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Note this observation is not complete accurately because, when using a specific Phishing mail
attack that described as spear phishing, the attacker doesnt use the option of bulk mail, but
instead, aim his attack to a very specific organization recipient such as the company CEO and so
on.
The difference between spam mail and Phishing mail
The main difference between spam mail attack versus Phishing mail attack is the level of
damage or the level of wickedness.
Most of the times, the standard spam mail can be considered as an E-mail that includes some
kind of a message, that tries to convince you to buy something.
Apart from the harassment that is caused by accepting unwanted E-mail message that
compels the user to waste the time required for read or delete the spam mail, there is no other
critical damage.
Note there are other damages that are caused by spam mail such as flooding of an
organization, communication lines and the waste of storage space on the mail server but, from
the user perspective, the spam mail is considered as a non-useful mail, and thats all.
Regarding the subject on possible damage that is caused by a Phishing mail attack, in this
case, the story is totally different!
The Phishing mail attacks damage could be translated into a specific user damage such as
breaking into a specific persons bank account and stealing his money or can be realized as an
attack, that infects the organization infrastructure with malware that can take control over the
organization infrastructure, encrypts hard disks and asking for a ransom and so on.
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Regarding the damage level which can be caused by a Phishing mail attack, the sky is the limit!
The spammer may wish to promote a specific product \ service which he provides.
The spammer may wish to promote a specific product \ service someone elses product
(affiliate programs).
Other I add the other, as a space holder for any other thing that the spammer has an
interest to promote.
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Another type of damages that are caused by spam mail are the damage of the organizational
infrastructure such as communication line and storage:
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Note the same methods for getting the E-mail address of the potential victims is used by the
hostile elm nets that perform Phishing mail attacks.