US government agencies and organisations will undertake online training on email authentication to prevent targeted email attacks. This effort is a critical part of the frontline of defence against cyber threats as outlined by President Obama and Cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt.

Training provier Online Trust Alliance (OTA) has created a curriculum that is being delivered through the CERT Program at the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute (SEI) to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for online delivery to federal employees.

Email authentication is a key defensive cybersecurity tool for the public and private sector to aid in the detection of malicious and deceptive email. This initiative reflects DHS’s commitment to accelerating best practices in cyber-security and supporting the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), and will allow federal employees to better protect agencies, employees and U.S. citizens.

“Email authentication is the front line defense for the escalating levels of spear phishing targeting government agencies and businesses which is undermining the trust and confidence of online services,” said Craig Spiezle, executive director and president, Online Trust Alliance. “This programme, supported by the White House, will help stem the tide of malicious and deceptive email. This is a great example of the public and private sector working together to help increase end-to-end trust of our nation’s critical infrastructure.”

Such threats as spear-phishing target business executives, senior level officials and political figures by forging a known and trusted sender’s email address in order to get the recipient to open the malicious email and install malware. Once deployed, the cybercriminals attempt to compromise systems with multiple forms of malware including zero-day exploits, to gain credentials giving them access to proprietary and sensitive data or the ability to monitor user’s online activities.

For more information
www.dhs.gov/index