Security News > 2022 > August > Universities Put Email Users at Cyber Risk

Top U.S. universities are among the worst in the world at protecting users from email fraud, lacking security measures to prevent common threat tactics such as domain spoofing or other types of fraudulent emails, researchers have found.

The news is troubling, especially as email remains the most common vector for security compromises across all industries, observed Ryan Kalember, executive vice president of cybersecurity strategy at Proofpoint, in a statement.

DMARC is an email validation protocol aimed at protecting domain names from being misused by cybercriminals by authenticating the sender's identity before sending a message to its intended destination, researchers noted.

Proofpoint found that none of the top U.S. and U.K. universities had a Reject policy in place that can actively block malicious emails from reaching their targets, leaving users of their email systems wide-open to email fraud.

Email is often a gateway for more dangerous attacks.

"When fully compliant with DMARC, a malicious email can't reach your inbox, removing the risk of human interference."

News URL

https://threatpost.com/universities-email-cyber-risk/180342/