Universities are highly attractive targets for email fraud

Proofpoint found that 97% of the top ten universities across United States, the United Kingdom and Australia are not taking appropriate measures to proactively block attackers from spoofing their email domains, increasing the risk of email fraud and business email compromise (BEC). With the shift to remote learning and now hybrid learning, the risks are getting higher.

Proofpoint is basing its analysis on DMARC implementation for the universities domains. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) is the only technology capable of not only defending against but eliminating domain spoofing or the risk of being impersonated. It has three levels of protection – monitor (called none), quarantine and reject, with reject being the most secure for preventing suspicious emails from reaching the inbox.

None of the top U.S. and U.K. universities had a reject policy in place.

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