Hackers fake your email address

Hackers often use fake CEO emails to infiltrate corporate networks. If they have access to such emails, they can commit CEO fraud and infiltrate the network more easily.

If a hacker tries to penetrate a company's network, one of his first steps is usually to forge the CEO's email address or to hijack his email account. There is a simple reason for this. If he has access to emails that look deceptively similar to those of the CEO or even come from the CEO's account itself, he can commit CEO fraud. Further penetration of the company network is then child's play for him.

Because now he can - with the help of social engineering methods - launch a spear phishing attack on the company's lower-ranking employees. If they have not undergone comprehensive security awareness training, they have virtually no chance of successfully resisting his attempts at manipulation. The cybercriminal can then easily order bank transfers or have strictly confidential information sent to them. A real problem - but one that has long since spread to the email addresses of lower-ranking employees. Cyber criminals research the email addresses of these employees, use them to develop slightly falsified new email addresses and then use these to manipulate their colleagues via a domain spoof attack.

It is important for companies to know whether their domain is susceptible to such attempts at deception. There are various methods to find out. One possibility is to carry out a so-called "email spoofing test". This involves trying to send a fake email from an address within your own domain to an employee. If the email is successfully delivered, even though it actually comes from a fake address, this is an indication that the domain could be vulnerable to spoofing attacks.

Another approach is to carry out an "Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)" search. This involves searching for publicly available information that could point to the employees' email addresses. This includes, for example, information from social networks, forums, company websites and other public sources. By identifying and checking this information, potentially compromised email addresses can be identified.

It is also important to regularly review and update the organisation's security policies and measures. This includes, for example, the implementation of technologies such as email authentication protocols (e.g. SPF, DKIM, DMARC), which can reduce the risk of spoofing attacks.

It is advisable to work with an IT security expert to carry out a comprehensive review of the domain and security measures and to implement suitable protective measures.