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Artificial intelligence4 min read

What is email spoofing?

The useful frame is not "is this secure" but "what does an attacker get if this one thing goes wrong, and how quickly would we know".

The useful frame is not "is this secure" but "what does an attacker get if this one thing goes wrong, and how quickly would we know".

This piece walks through how we think about it at Paycux, what we have changed our minds about, and where the sharp edges are.

How email spoofing works

How email spoofing works is where this gets concrete. Rotate on a schedule, not on an incident. A rotation path that has been exercised is a routine change; one that has never been used is an outage waiting for the worst possible moment.

Rotate on a schedule, not on an incident. A rotation path that has been exercised is a routine change; one that has never been used is an outage waiting for the worst possible moment.

Common spoofing techniques

That brings us to common spoofing techniques. Detection beats prevention when prevention is uncertain. If you cannot stop a class of abuse outright, make sure it produces a signal loud enough that someone sees it the same day.

Detection beats prevention when prevention is uncertain. If you cannot stop a class of abuse outright, make sure it produces a signal loud enough that someone sees it the same day.

  • Scope credentials to the smallest useful blast radius
  • Alert on the abuse you cannot prevent
  • Exercise the rotation path before you need it
  • Log the decision, not just the outcome

What attackers use spoofed email for

What attackers use spoofed email for deserves its own treatment. Detection beats prevention when prevention is uncertain. If you cannot stop a class of abuse outright, make sure it produces a signal loud enough that someone sees it the same day.

Blast radius is the metric that actually matters. A credential that can read one organization's data is an incident; the same credential scoped to every organization is a company-ending event, and the difference is a design decision made months earlier.

How SPF, DKIM, and DMARC prevent spoofing

How SPF, DKIM, and DMARC prevent spoofing is where this gets concrete. Detection beats prevention when prevention is uncertain. If you cannot stop a class of abuse outright, make sure it produces a signal loud enough that someone sees it the same day.

Rotate on a schedule, not on an incident. A rotation path that has been exercised is a routine change; one that has never been used is an outage waiting for the worst possible moment.

Detection beats prevention when prevention is uncertain.

SPF: Sender Policy Framework

SPF: Sender Policy Framework deserves its own treatment. Detection beats prevention when prevention is uncertain. If you cannot stop a class of abuse outright, make sure it produces a signal loud enough that someone sees it the same day.

Blast radius is the metric that actually matters. A credential that can read one organization's data is an incident; the same credential scoped to every organization is a company-ending event, and the difference is a design decision made months earlier.

DKIM: DomainKeys Identified Mail

That brings us to dkim: domainkeys identified mail. Blast radius is the metric that actually matters. A credential that can read one organization's data is an incident; the same credential scoped to every organization is a company-ending event, and the difference is a design decision made months earlier.

Detection beats prevention when prevention is uncertain. If you cannot stop a class of abuse outright, make sure it produces a signal loud enough that someone sees it the same day.

DMARC: Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance

DMARC: Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance deserves its own treatment. Detection beats prevention when prevention is uncertain. If you cannot stop a class of abuse outright, make sure it produces a signal loud enough that someone sees it the same day.

Detection beats prevention when prevention is uncertain. If you cannot stop a class of abuse outright, make sure it produces a signal loud enough that someone sees it the same day.

Where this leaves us

None of this is exotic. It is the ordinary discipline of deciding what you own, writing down what you assume, and making the failures loud enough to notice.

If you are working through the same problem and want to compare notes, the docs cover the mechanics and the console shows the behaviour on your own data.

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