Email plays a critical role in the communications infrastructure of any business, and therefore it is extremely important to shore up its defenses so hackers cannot take advantage of it as an outlet into your network. It’s true that most businesses don’t understand just how important email security is, and if it’s not addressed, it could be quite costly for your organization.
The Importance of Email Security
The best logic behind investing in your email security is that it is a solution that will constantly be under attack. Whether it’s one malicious email or a targeted campaign against multiple people in your business, all it takes is one mistake to give hackers access to your infrastructure. If you have unsecured email inboxes, you might as well be giving hackers permission to do so, too.
Here are a couple of ways you can improve your email security.
Identifying Phishing Attacks
First, you should train your team to appropriately identify phishing attacks that target their inboxes. A phishing attack is when a cybercriminal sends out a deceptive message designed to fool someone into thinking it is authentic with the intention of getting them to act a certain way. It might have them download an attachment, click a link in the message body, or enter credentials in an online form. These attacks are usually phishing for access to a network-attached account so the cybercriminal can steal data or deploy malware.
Here are some things you should train your employees to do:
- Check the sender - Do you recognize the sender and the address that the email comes from? If not, you will want to verify with the would-be sender before interacting with the email.
- Check the links - By hovering your mouse over the links in the email, you can see the URL that the hyperlink goes to. If you don’t recognize it or it doesn’t match the text of the email, don’t click on it.
- Check punctuation and grammar - Phishing emails tend to have grammar and punctuation issues that you would never see in professional correspondence. Many attacks come from foreign countries where English isn’t the first language.
- Take it slow - Phishing emails tend to create panic for users and that leads to impulsive action and then disaster. Train your employees to take it slow and if they find anything that doesn’t make complete sense in an email to report it to the IT staff. Better safe than sorry.
If your employees understand what to look for in phishing attacks and know how and when to report them, you’ll be well ahead of most businesses regarding email security.
Securing Your Email Backup
A Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or STMP, is a server enabling the sending and receiving of emails. These messages are stored on the STMP server in plain text format. These backups are usually not protected and available for everyone to access, so you should do your part to ensure that this is not the case. You can add an additional layer of security through the use of encryption.
Tighten Down Email Security
If you want to crack down on your defenses, consider the multi-layered security solutions that protect email servers. These solutions can introduce protections such as spam filtering so that you can detect and block potentially malicious emails. You can also use password-protected attachment scans, page impersonation attack detection, and domain background checks to ensure that your business’ email solutions are not currently the target of attacks.
Business Solutions & Software Group can equip your business with tools to protect its email solutions from threats. To learn more, reach out to us at (954) 575-3992.
