Security researchers and experts in Dubai have recently expressed concerns regarding email-borne security attacks that are expected to hit 60% of the UAE corporate sector.

A cybersecurity research survey conducted by security experts in Dubai revealed that email-based attacks are on the rise in the Middle East, so adequate precautions should be taken beforehand. 

The information incorporated in the report was based on the cumulative suggestions made by 1,025 IT decision-makers, in the Middle East. It contained a detailed analysis of the current situation of cybersecurity.

It gave a bone-chilling revelation that email-borne attacks and web spoofing will soon be on the rise, targeting more than half of the organizations in the UAE. 

The report that was formulated based on the survey, summarizes annual comparisons of the leading trends developed by organizations in the arena of cybersecurity. Furthermore, details on crisis management during the ongoing pandemic were also included. 

Researchers formulated the report to give insights into new strategies that might help organizations around the world strengthen their security infrastructure. The increased threat of email-based attacks in the Middle East has made it imperative for organizations to upgrade their email security strategies. 

The recent discoveries made in the 2020 security survey disclosed that while organizations are trying to come up with new cyber-resilience strategies, improvements need to be made. 

Findings in the survey suggested that 77% of global organizations are implementing robust cyber-resilience strategies at their workplace, including 80% of corporate sectors in the UAE itself.

Despite such attempts, 60% of the companies in the UAE are predicted to be hit by a wave of email-borne cyber attacks by 2021.

Security Issues and Rise in Email-Borne Attacks 

Security experts have stated that while the nature of cyber threats faced by the organizations has remained unchanged for years, hackers are coming up with new ways to evade detection. 

IT decision-makers of organizations who had taken part in the survey revealed that 54% of company data was lost,  and there had been a 40% decrease in employee productivity in the past 12 months. This was due to the lack of effective management and resilience after a cyber attack. 

According to security professionals conducting the survey, the onset of a global pandemic has increased cyber threats faced by corporate sectors. This is why implementing cyber-resilience strategies have become imperative in organizations.

While organizations are coming up with innovative cyber-resilience strategies, investing in the right security solutions can help in instigating an effective threat response.

Staying updated on the latest technology in cyberspace and paying primal attention to email security is of utmost importance in 2020.

Hence, organizations should follow a step by step workplace security policy that includes threat response, cybersecurity awareness training, business continuity, crisis management, and brand exploitation prevention.

Email Spoofing Threats Soon to Impact Organizations

With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, companies around the world have been compelled to initiate a remote working policy. Cyber attackers have taken up this golden opportunity to target unaware employees with the help of email spoofing and domain spoofing techniques. 

Reportedly, several security analysts from around the world have suggested that there might be a 54% increase in the number of email spoofing activities in the upcoming 12 months.

Among the organizations that took part in the survey, 74% of the companies were concerned about unsecured email domains. The exploitation of brand image via spoofing of company websites and landing pages was also an equally concerning issue that was raised.  

80% of the organizations in the UAE expressed agitation regarding the direct spoofing of their official email domains. Hence, organizations should implement security measures to look through the tactics implemented by hackers and cybercriminals for launching email spoofing attacks. 

Participants of the UAE report had also suggested that there has been a significant increase in the number of phishing attacks for the past 12 months. Impersonation and ransomware attacks are continuing to wreak havoc in the corporate sector.

66% of the survey participants and respondents have claimed that increased ransomware and impersonation attacks have also led to huge amounts of data loss and compromised the financial assets in their respective organizations. 

Modern Email Security Solutions: Need of the Hour

To exercise a robust workplace security policy in organizations in the UAE, the concerned security officials must pay adequate attention to email security practices. Securing your organization’s email domains will prevent hackers from sending spoofed emails to employees.

These spoofed emails can contain links for malware installations and lead employees to spoofed login pages asking for corporate account credentials. Spoofed emails may even perpetrate phishing attacks and compromise sensitive company data. 

With the chilling discoveries made in the report by security analysts of Dubai, CISOs, CIOs, and security analysts must implement email authentication protocols in their respective organizations.

This should be done at the earliest convenience to form a shield against the impending email spoofing attacks that may hit the UAE corporate sector by 2021.  

Making these email authentication standards an integral part of the company’s email security infrastructure will help to secure your organization’s email domains. Such security protocols will defend official email domains against email-based attacks such as spoofing and BEC attacks.

DMARC is considered to be the leading email authentication standard, in alignment with DKIM and SPF. It not only secures your company’s official email domains against malicious activities but also enhances the email deliverability rate. 

The implemented DMARC policy can be customized according to your organization’s needs and can be set to “none”,” quarantine” or “reject”. Here is how these policies work:

• In the case of “none” policy, all emails land into the employee inboxes. 
• If the policy is set to “quarantine”, the emails failing the verification step of the authentication process are transferred into the spam folder. 
• In the case of “reject” policy, all suspicious emails that fail verification are moved to the Junk folder. 

TDMARC is the leading DMARC-based email authentication tool that will take your organization’s email security to the next level. 

TDMARC offers the following benefits: 

• Prevents brand abuse and protects your customers
• Gains full insight into your email channels
• Enhances the email deliverability rate
• Detects and defends against email spoofing attacks
• Increases the email engagement rate
• Disallows the unauthorized use of your company’s email domain to protect against fraud.
• Offers protection against email tampering.

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