Blockchain for Email Security: A Perspective on Existing and Potential Solutions for Phishing Attacks

Jamal N. Al-Karaki, Amjad Gawanmeh, Claude Fachkha

Abstract: Email security is critical to all types of businesses, as it represents 80% of the plethora of official communication tools used by most organizations worldwide. Attackers use several techniques to trick users to perform harmful actions, mainly via emails. Identifying such activities or circumventing them is better than relying on the end-user's behavior of being unaware. Traditional e-mail systems use centralized servers to provide services, making them a single point of failure if servers are attacked or at least private information is leaked. Thus, a decentralized e-mail system can provide more trust and reliability. This study is an initial attempt to explore the use of Blockchain-based solutions to improve the security and privacy of traditional e-mail systems. This paper presents two-fold coverage of this problem. First, a summary of common email security architectures is presented, outlined, and criticized for various parameters. Second, we propose a technique for solving the problem of phishing emails by targeting changes in the email system structure using Blockchain technology thereby preventing a considerable number of phishing attempts. We discuss the approach along with its advantages and disadvantages.