When you fall victim to spoofing attacks as an individual, the resulting setbacks can quickly complicate your life. However, when your business falls victim, the consequences can be all-encompassing and jeopardize many parties involved. Worse yet, spoofing can threaten your company’s longevity and halt further success.

Safeguarding your business against spoofing attacks and fraud should remain a key priority as you seek to protect your business assets. A proactive approach can lend itself to higher reputation and data management marks among shareholders and customers. In many cases, prevention measures against spoofing attacks can often be absorbed into the online costs of your business.

What are spoofing attacks?

Bad actors who are intent on impersonating another entity (such as a business or individual) use spoofing attacks to dupe intended victims into believing they are interacting with a legitimate persona. In reality, fraudsters hide their true identity by using an email address, sender name, phone number, or website URL that may closely resemble the entity or individual they’re trying to impersonate. For example, a slight misspelling of an email address, sender name, or URL indicates a potential spoofing attack, as the front can fool anyone unwilling to closely examine the source.

Spoofing attacks also represent a type of phishing scam that takes advantage of people who may type quickly or click on the wrong website without knowing it. While highly consequential for individuals, spoofing attacks have become a greater threat to businesses which manage sensitive customer data and employee credentials. It’s the difference between compromising one financial account versus several hundred or even thousand.

The danger spoofing poses for businesses.

By gaining control over a business’s resources, spoofing attacks can put anyone involved with the company in a compromising position. Customers—and, by extension, customer data—provide plenty of fodder for bad actors to increase their gains. Spoofing attacks can also threaten the financial data and sensitive information within any business’s custody, which may include trade secrets or any manner of private dealings.

With access to the private information and resources of a business, spoofers can assume the business’s identity and extract further value from trusted partners, business contacts, prospective customers, and more. Should your business have backdoor access to the websites or databases of other businesses, hackers can use blackmail to exploit this information as well. The final damage report accounts for financial, reputational, and legal losses that may paralyze even the most robust companies.

Common types of spoofing attacks and defense tactics.

Successfully protecting yourself against spoofing attacks requires knowing how fraudsters gain access to sensitive information and implementing safeguards to keep those entry points secure. Email, caller ID, IP addresses, and websites are among the most common delivery methods for spoofing attacks and the subsequent spread of malware.

Email spoofing

If you’ve ever received a spam email, you’re already familiar with the type of spoofing hackers use. In obvious cases, shoddy spoofing tactics include mimicking a trusted email address and sending emails with malicious information requests to all hacked contacts. The contents of these emails are often amateurish and may consist of misspellings or typos. On the other hand, more sophisticated email spoofing attacks can easily bypass detection from employees or even upper management.

Multi-factor authentication protocols and employee education can effectively reduce the number of successful spoofing attacks. Beginning with the company email login process, businesses should require a two-factor or multi-factor authentication process. These requirements may even go so far as to request biometric identification to ensure maximum security.

In addition, educating employees on how spoofing attacks may appear can increase security exponentially. Instead of unwittingly allowing a spoofing attack, employees can help contain the attack before it can do any (further) damage. Considering what’s at stake for your business, strict security measures set the tone for a zero-tolerance policy.

If you’ve ever come across email spoofing, please send us a copy of your suspicious (spam) email to PopularNet@bpop.com.

Caller ID spoofing

Fraudsters implementing caller ID spoofing find successful targets with small businesses that handle countless phone calls in a typical workday. The prevailing strategy — i.e., masquerading as a viable business or individual—proceeds with a fake caller ID signature appearing on the screen. Though caller ID spoofing requires more complex interactions with intended victims, fraudsters play up the perceived value they seemingly present to get what they want.

Similarly, large businesses, despite potentially having more security buffers in place, can be as vulnerable to caller ID spoofing attacks as small businesses. However, introducing verification protocols, such as asking who is calling, requesting a callback number, or delaying any connection before further verification, can act as filters to combat spoofing attempts. It’s often best to hang up and call back to confirm an identity rather than assume the speaker is who they claim they are.

Learn more about scam callers, their tactics, and the different ways you can protect your online security.

IP spoofing

IP addresses can also be used to spoof unsuspecting victims. Advanced security measures can track IP addresses to allow only authorized users access to valuable information. However, hackers can still obtain pre-approved IP addresses or dupe the security network into believing they’re a trusted source and approved to bypass these restrictive measures.

To prevent bad actors from accessing highly sensitive information through a fake IP address, businesses can deploy network monitoring tools to alert when a potential spoofing attack occurs. Robust verification and firewalls protect your company’s most valuable resources by granting access to a select few. Finally, companies can implement Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6), which offers extra encryption and authentication steps to prevent IP spoofing.

Website spoofing

Visiting a familiar website with a few strange details may mean you’ve landed upon a spoofing trap. In most of these cases, you may be asked to log in to your account or enter personal information to continue. Though targeted at individuals and businesses, website spoofing attacks have a greater potential for damage when they can compromise business login credentials.

For instance, spoofers may steal your rewards or account information from a website you log in to as an individual. When the intended victim is a business, the corresponding sensitive information might include customers, business partners, and associates. If your company has one or more accounts to place orders or submit support tickets to third-party vendors, the compromised information could lead to more significant damage if you’re unaware of any security breach.

Again, verification and attention to the finer details can help businesses avoid becoming victims of website spoofing attacks. If employees log in to a particular system, ensure security measures exist to protect their credentials. Encourage individuals to verify any correspondence, visually inspect logos or images, and remain cautious.

Additional methods to prevent spoofing.

Unfortunately, many companies wait until they’ve experienced a security breach to properly establish measures that help prevent spoofing. Instead, a proactive approach can help reduce the potential for success in any spoofing operation. Business owners should regularly examine their existing security protocols to discover any vulnerabilities.

While updates and audits can reveal compromised aspects of your security, it’s also sensible to broach the topic with employees. Discuss how spoofing attacks occur and what your employees can do to help prevent them. Establish limited access to sensitive information and consider employing an ethical hacker to identify and any remaining vulnerabilities in your security protocols.

Take action: Security breach measures

Should an unfortunate spoofing attack succeed, take the following measures:

• Disconnect from the internet or hang up the phone. 
• Initiate a widespread reset of login credentials at all levels.
• Run a malware scan with antivirus software to identify and remove any malicious programs. 
• Carefully review all financial accounts and database logs over the next several days and weeks. 
• Analyze how the spoofing attack occurred, interviewing anyone who might have had contact with the hackers. 
• Contact any parties who may be involved or affected, and file a report with the Federal Trade Commission and any other authorities.

After completing damage control, devise a plan to prevent any further incidents. Although fraudsters rarely reuse a spoofing method on a business, another group of bad actors may be ready to engage.

Mount a solid defense to protect your business from spoofing.

While too many companies fall victim to these malevolent schemes, educating others on their safeguarding tactics dramatically reduces the potential for spoofing attacks to succeed. Share these tips with your business associates, employees, and family members, and review your company’s security to repel any spoofing attack directed your way.

If you feel you’re a victim of fraud, Call us immediately at 1-800-377-0800.

 

Don’t miss Popular Bank’s 8 tips to protect yourself from bank fraud and scams.