Display name spoofing

In this article, you’ll learn how display name spoofing works, the risks it poses, and effective strategies to prevent it. Stay informed to protect your organisation from falling victim to this common cyber threat.

Table of Contents

• What is Display Name Spoofing?
• How to Prevent Display Name Spoofing

What is display name spoofing?

Display name spoofing uses the display name of email senders to deceive recipients. By using a real name that is known to the recipient, hackers attempt to trick users into divulging sensitive information or downloading attachments infected with malware. Display name spoofing is one of the most common forms of email spoofing and is especially effective on mobile devices, since email clients often hide the sender’s email address.

How to prevent display name spoofing

Protection against display name spoofing attacks includes security awareness training and email security that analyzes emails for display name and email address consistency.

Though some spoofing attacks are extremely hard to detect, many are easy to spot, and user awareness training can empower your employees to make a difference.

Advanced email security solutions can quickly analyze inbound emails for signs of email spoofing and other anomalies. Hornetsecurity’s Advanced Threat Protection analyzes email headers to determine if the display name and email address are consistent with the company’s entity model. It also adds an SPF-like layer into the email filtering process that spots unauthorized use of legitimate domain names and cousin domains.