Over 90% of cyberattacks are initiated via email, making effective email security a vital part of a business's overall security posture that is often neglected. Inadequately secured email accounts leave employees vulnerable to an array of dangerous threats including targeted spear phishing and ransomware. Just one employee clicking on a link in a phishing email or downloading ransomware has the potential to destroy a company, especially if that company is a small or medium-sized business (SMB). Email-borne attacks and breaches often result in significant downtime, decreased productivity, legal fees, recovery costs, and ruined reputations, and 60% of small companies shut down within six months of falling victim to a data breach or a cyberattack. This article will discuss the role employees play in email security, as well as best practices to keep your business secure.
Human error is a leading cause of successful attacks, however, there are protective measures that administrators, managers, and IT professionals should take to help influence and motivate employees to make secure, intelligent decisions. These best practices for reducing the risk of employee error include:
- Invest in employee education and security awareness training about email threats and email security. Employees are a company’s last line of defense when it comes to securing business email accounts, and must understand the importance of their actions and the serious repercussions that a mistake such as downloading a malicious attachment or clicking through a malicious link can have.
- Encourage employees to choose strong, unique passwords, and implement 2FA whenever possible. Utilizing strong passwords that are not reused across different accounts is imperative to mitigating email risk. Taking a strict approach to email passwords reduces the risk of dictionary attacks and website exploits, which can have devastating consequences for employees and organizations. Implementing two-factor authentication (2FA) wherever it is available is also highly beneficial to an organization’s digital security posture and reduces the risk of account takeovers.
- Emphasize the importance of thinking before interacting with any email message, and encourage employees to verify all suspicious emails that they receive. Clearly convey the message that it is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to email security, and if an email appears strange or suspicious in any way employees should not hesitate to report it to their manager or their company’s IT department.
- Invest in a proactive, multi-layered email security solution. Implement an email security solution that provides complete control of your email infrastructure and visibility into the threats targeting your organization and the security of your email. Choose a solution that is capable of protecting sensitive information and preventing data leakage with strong end-to-end encryption of both incoming and outgoing messages, is able to reliably identify and block advanced and emerging threats in real-time, and is fully supported by the ongoing expert system monitoring and maintenance required to ensure that users and key business assets remain safe in this heightened digital threat environment.
Guardian Digital EnGarde Cloud Email Security offers fully supported all-in-one email protection, effectively mitigating businesses’ risk of suffering an insider attack. Powered by advanced Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) and AI technologies, EnGarde accurately identifies and rapidly quarantines both new and known threats in real-time, preventing them from reaching the inbox where they could cause severe harm. EnGarde secures business email accounts against outsiders and insiders alike with the following key features:
- A resilient multi-tiered architecture, in which individual security features work harmoniously to detect and combat threats in real-time, bolstering endpoint protection and closing critical security gaps in native Microsoft 365 email security
- Zero-hour outbreak control that protects against new, unknown threats
- Neutralizes threats associated with malicious attachments and links
- Authenticates every email delivered using DMARC, DKIM, and SPF
- Protects sensitive data with powerful end-to-end encryption of incoming and outgoing emails
- State-of-the-art heuristic technologies recognize malicious code and accurately identify and block highly targeted phishing and impersonation attempts
- A dynamic reputation system classifies emails based on origin
- Real-time URL filtering and advanced URL analysis detect and stop the most targeting phishing attacks
- A scalable cloud-based system simplifies deployment and increases availability
- Tighter security, adaptive implementation and eliminated risk of vendor lock-in through the use of a transparent, collaborative development approach
- Expert ongoing system monitoring, maintenance, and support enhance IT security, productivity, and convenience
- Real-time cybersecurity business insights accessible via the EnGarde Cloud Email Security Dashboard allow for improved decision-making and better enforcement of company security policies
Training and education are imperative aspects of an effective security strategy. Through security training, enterprises can better educate users and raise their awareness. To prevent threats businesses should also consider investing in a comprehensive, fully supported email security solution that creates a safeguarded environment around the user by preventing all malicious mail from reaching the inbox, making this the most effective way to prevent the devastation that human error can cause.