Emails connect billions of people worldwide to exchange information and communicate. With more and more options coming every day for communication, emails are still the first preference of the organizations. As the vulnerabilities increase widely on the internet, securing organizations’ confidential data from data breaches has become a big question for them. With such a massive volume of data breaches and cyberattacks, your emails are highly susceptible than ever before. In order to make email security possible, you need to learn about the different types of threats and security tricks. Here you will know more about email security and how to ensure better protection of your confidentiality:
What does Email Security Signify?
Email security is used widely to ensure a better and more secure exchange of information. It consists of all the technologies and tools individuals use to ensure confidentiality of the emails by making a safer place for the individuals to communicate and connect. Now you must be thinking about why there is so much emphasis on email security. We can say it can be because the emails appear as the biggest target for attackers where they get broad access to the critical data of organizations.
One of the most crucial reasons to secure your email is it contains the most vital parts of information for the organization that can be easily tampered with. The cloud-based emails come with several benefits but open more doors for cyber attackers to breach the data.
Different types of Cyber Threats in Email Security
Malware Delivery
Malware delivery is one of the most common practices attackers use to breach security. Under this, spammers pose as a person associated with the organization, such as employees, managers, partners, or clients, to track down the employees for downloading the attached files. In most cases, victims don’t get that the files they download can breach their privacy and lead to data intrusion. The possibility to track the intrusion at the early stages is almost impossible. Often, the organizations learn about the data breach only after their data gets compromised.
Phishing Emails
Phishing emails are very similar to spam emails, but they don’t ask for confidential information. Instead, they ask for the user’s data by cloaking their actual identity by posing as someone else. In most cases, the attackers collect the details of the organization’s employees, such as those related to the financial department. Then email the other employees posing as someone from the financial department to ask for their financial credentials such as emails, passwords, account numbers, etc.
Business Email Compromise
Most often known as the CEO Fraud, the Business email compromise (BEC) is a trick used by the attackers to target high-ranking employees of the organizations. Under this, the attackers note every single activity of the victim by following his latest updates on the internet. Now they impersonate the person of a particular company for negotiating a project they recently heard about. Thus, we can, as the BEC is used to steal enormous credit and trade secrets of a particular company. It is a powerful weapon used by attackers to target the high-level authorities of the organization and access all their secrets.
DDoS Attacks
Like the most common DDoS attacks, attackers overwhelm the organization’s servers by sending massive emails, causing the system to crash. As many B2C businesses depend on their emails for bringing higher sales, it is an excellent weapon for attackers to intrude on their privacy.
What are the Best Practices for Email Security?
Multi-Factor Authentication
One of the best practices to ensure email security is multi-factor authentication. It is the ultimate data loss protection, and hacking tool one can follow for a secure and smooth flow of confidential information. Under this, the user needs to pass through one or more authentication steps to prove they are authorized for the access.
Shield with Antivirus Protection
Antivirus programs offer excellent protection to the users over different security concerns. Antivirus plays a significant role in screening and blocking all types of suspicious emails and attachments when it comes to email security. It helps provide the users with warnings related to suspicious emails.
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
A secure email gateway is one of the most popular tools used by organizations to ensure better email security. Most organizations use this strategy to screen out potentially dangerous emails entering the network.
Email Encryption
We all know how much security encryption protects users from any data breach. Under this, organizations encrypt their confidential information that cannot be easily understandable by outsiders. The aim is to disguise the corporate emails so that the reader cannot easily understand them unless authorized.
Employee Training
Besides all such tools, organizations provide employee training to educate them regarding different email security strategies. It helps organizations ensure better email security as their employees remain more vigilant over various email attacks such as phishing, malware, spam, etc.
General Tips to Ensure Better Email Security?
Avoid opening unknown emails.
It is best to avoid opening mail that looks fishy. If you think it is suspicious, better move it to the spam box and never open it.
Avoid Sending Sensitive Information
Sending sensitive information to anyone over email is the biggest mistake anyone can make. It is best to avoid sending sensitive information to anyone via email, as you have no idea where it will be used or forwarded.
Do not download/Click attachments.
One of the biggest mistakes anyone can make over their email is downloading or clicking on the attachments received via email. Attachments are the most powerful weapons for attackers to intrude on your privacy. Make sure never to click or download attachments coming from suspicious emails.
Do Not Click on Links.
The best way is to avoid clicking on the links given on the suspicious links to save yourself from malware or phishing attacks. A single click on the links can lead to losing a large set of your confidential data. So, make sure to not click on them unless necessary.
Connecting to public Wi-Fi
We all know how vulnerable public Wi-Fi’s are for anyone’s data. It is best to never connect to the public networks and trust them for signing in to your emails containing critical data. Never open your corporate emails over public networks if you want to keep them secure.
Use strong passwords
Passwords play an essential role in your email security. If you want to keep them secure, use strong passwords containing a mixture of alphabets, numbers, and characters. Always use capital and small letters to ensure the better security of your emails.
Change passwords frequently
Cybercrimes increase tremendously, and you need to be more vigilant over your email security to have better control over your data. One of the most powerful ways is to keep changing the passwords frequently to deceive intruders watching your email activities.