Ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Proofpoint has found 25% of Australia’s top 100 online retailers are not taking appropriate measures to protect consumers from potential email fraud and cybercrime.
Proofpoint’s analysis of Power Retail’s Top 100 Retailers for 2022 looked at their adoption of DMARC, a widely used protocol that helps guarantee the identity of email communications and protects website domain names from being misused. The results showed 25% of retailers have no DMARC record in place, leaving Australians open to email fraud.
The research also found:
- 23% of online retailers have implemented the highest level of protection to reject suspicious emails from reaching consumers’ inboxes
- 43% of online retailers have implemented a monitor policy, meaning unqualified emails still get to the recipient’s inbox
- 9% have implemented a quarantine policy to direct unqualified emails to spam/junk folders
“The influx of emails from brands offering great deals during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping period makes it an opportune time for cyber criminals to capitalise on the spike in email traffic and target shoppers with creative and convincing lures,” says Proofpoint Senior Director, Advanced Technology Group, Asia Pacific and Japan Steve Moros.
“As Australians search the internet and check their inboxes for the latest shopping bargains, it’s important to remain vigilant and keep safe shopping practices front of mind.
“Email is a widely used marketing tool and therefore a popular channel for cyber criminals to leverage to conduct large-scale phishing campaigns to steal personal information or credit card details that can then be used to engage in identity and financial fraud.
“DMARC is widely viewed as best-practice in preventing suspicious emails from reaching the inbox, yet our research shows one in four retailers aren’t protected. This leaves them open to being impersonated by cyber criminals who can then deliver malicious emails to consumers’ inboxes.”