Spoofing

Spoofing is the act of impersonating another entity by falsifying information used to establish trust. It encompasses techniques across communications, computing, and location services, with the goal of deceiving systems or people into accepting a forged identity.

Common forms include email spoofing (for phishing or malware delivery), caller ID spoofing, IP spoofing, ARP spoofing, DNS spoofing, GPS spoofing, and web spoofing (fake sites designed to resemble legitimate ones).

Spoofing relies on forged headers or routing information, bogus source addresses, or misrepresented signals, often combined with social engineering to increase credibility.

Risks include credential theft, unauthorized access, financial loss, fraud, data exposure, service disruption, and reputational damage to individuals or organizations.

Defenses draw on technical controls and user awareness: email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), TLS and certificate validation, DNSSEC; network measures such as ingress filtering and BCP 38; ARP spoofing protections; GPS or telephony protections; and ongoing monitoring.

Because spoofing exploits trust, it remains a persistent threat that is best countered with layered defenses and vigilance.