May 11, 2022

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has released a free tool to help organizations check for email cybersecurity risks.

The new Email Security Check tool will help organizations identify vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to spoof emails or lead to privacy violations.

The tool checks publicly available internet DNS entries to verify that anti-spoofing controls and TLS configuration are configured correctly by initiating a server “handshake.”

“It checks that anti-spoofing standards such as DMARC are configured correctly to help organizations prevent cybercriminals from abusing their domain and sending out malicious emails pretending to be them. It also looks up whether privacy protocols such as TLS, are in place to ensure that emails are encrypted when in transit so they cannot be accessed and remain confidential between mail servers,” according to the NCSC.

Although it will only be able to identify vulnerabilities that cybercriminals can detect, its goal will be to help organizations identify these vulnerabilities before they are exploited and the email domain targeted in attacks.

One of the actions the tool can however not carryout is to check if individual emails or email domains are malicious. The NCSC advises anyone who receives suspicious emails to report them by forwarding them to report@phishing.gov.uk.

The tool is not currently available to the private sector. Eligible organizations include central government organisations, local authorities, devolved administrations, emergency services, NHS organizations, academia, and charities.

The sources for this piece include an article in BleepingComputer.