
Types of spoofing Email spoofingĪmong the most widely-used attacks, email spoofing occurs when the sender forges email headers to that client software displays the fraudulent sender address, which most users take at face value. We explore the most common spoofing examples below.

The more complex technical attacks involve IP addresses, Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), and Domain Name System (DNS) servers. There are many different types of spoofing attacks – the more straightforward ones relate to emails, websites, and phone calls. For businesses, spoofing attacks can sometimes lead to ransomware attacks or damaging and costly data breaches. Spoofers often know what strings to pull to manipulate a victim into taking the desired action – in this example, authorizing a fraudulent wire transfer – without raising suspicion.Ī successful spoofing attack can have serious consequences – including stealing personal or company information, harvesting credentials for use in further attacks, spreading malware, gaining unauthorized network access, or bypassing access controls. For example, spoofers may send an email that appears to come from a trusted senior co-worker or manager, asking you to transfer some money online and providing a convincing rationale for the request. Spoofing typically relies on two elements – the spoof itself, such as a faked email or website, and then the social engineering aspect, which nudges victims to take action. Spoofing attacks usually involve an element of social engineering, where scammers psychologically manipulate their victims by playing on human vulnerabilities such as fear, greed, or lack of technical knowledge. Spoofing can apply to a range of communication channels and can involve different levels of technical complexity. Any time an online scammer disguises their identity as something else, it’s spoofing. Spoofing is a broad term for the type of behavior that involves a cybercriminal masquerading as a trusted entity or device to get you to do something beneficial to the hacker - and detrimental to you. The motivation is usually to gain access to systems, steal data, steal money, or spread malware.

In cybersecurity, ‘spoofing’ is when fraudsters pretend to be someone or something else to win a person’s trust.
