The National Cyber Emergency Response Team (National CERT) has released a critical cybersecurity advisory warning all public, private, and government sector organizations about the escalating threat of cyberattacks stemming from misconfigured email systems. The alert highlights the growing exploitation of email vulnerabilities that can lead to phishing, business email compromise (BEC), domain spoofing, and other malicious activities targeting organizations and individuals across Pakistan.
The advisory draws attention to how threat actors are leveraging insecure email environments to impersonate trusted institutions, gain access to confidential information, distribute ransomware, and carry out financial scams. Lapses in implementing standard email security protocols such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) are at the center of this growing concern. Without these mechanisms properly configured, attackers can easily bypass traditional filters and abuse trusted communication channels to deceive recipients.
According to National CERT, the vulnerabilities identified include domains with no email protection at all (coded WK-1), domains that have DMARC policies set only to monitoring mode (WK-4), and those lacking protective rules for subdomains (WK-5). These weaknesses allow malicious actors to hijack email communications, leading to unauthorized access and data compromise. In some cases, even legitimate organizational emails are being marked as spam or blocked entirely, disrupting operations and stakeholder trust.
The threat landscape detailed in the advisory includes financially driven cybercriminals, ideologically motivated hacktivists, and state-sponsored groups conducting cyber espionage. These actors exploit the absence of technical safeguards and gaps in awareness to cause both financial and reputational damage. The advisory underlines the broader implications of such attacks on Pakistan’s economic stability and national security, especially when used to propagate misinformation or manipulate high-stakes communication.
Organizations are urged to take immediate action to address these risks. National CERT recommends that all entities implement email authentication protocols across their entire domain infrastructure, including subdomains. It also advises enabling multi-factor authentication for all users, conducting periodic security audits, and training teams to recognize phishing and spoofing attempts. IT and cybersecurity teams are encouraged to proactively monitor their domain settings and ensure compliance with best practices.
Email service providers are also called upon to support domain owners by offering built-in security settings, promoting adoption of authentication protocols, and deploying real-time monitoring tools capable of identifying anomalous or malicious behavior in outbound and inbound email traffic.
To support a coordinated national response, National CERT has urged institutions to report incidents through its official portal (https://pkcert.gov.pk/report-incident.asp). The advisory emphasizes that cyber threats targeting email infrastructure must be handled with urgency and care to avoid exposure to financial fraud, data breaches, and operational disruptions. Institutions that fail to act risk long-term damage to their credibility and digital trust.
