Email Security Explained

Are you satisfied with your company’s email security? Emails are one of the most important forms of communication within your company. Employees exchange sensitive information every day over email. This brings up several concerns in regard to email security and the possibility of that sensitive information getting into the wrong hands. There are several areas of concern when it comes to email security. The two major concerns are the transmission and storage of messages. Both of these are equally worrisome when it comes to ensuring your email security. A third concern is having a backup solution should your email security fail.

Email security is the use of different precautionary techniques to secure email accounts and critical information in email communication. These techniques protect electronic accounts and communications against unauthorized access, compromise of privacy, and loss of sensitive information. Email security protects the contents of a personal or a professional email account or service, by safeguarding it against spear phishing attacks, spam mail, and controlling the spread of malware.

Have you ever been bombarded with spam? Most of us have. Spam email is responsible for almost all malicious email security attacks. It is simple to add an attachment or insert a link redirecting you to a hazardous website. While we can’t control if someone on the inside clicks the link or downloads the file, we can put some security measures in place to help filter out this type of attack. This is where spam filters and firewalls can come into play. Checking every file that comes in as well as the graphics and links in emails can make a huge difference.

Virus attachments on emails have been around a long time and have been the cause of some of the world’s most vicious computer attacks. Oftentimes the virus will install a Trojan which will lie dormant until a later date and then attack without warning. Another instance of viruses invading your email security is keyloggers which transmit the information you type across a port on your computer to an outside source. That program then passes your sensitive information over to the attacker and your private information is now in the wrong hands. Most spam-based email security attacks are more annoying than truly serious, and a majority of them do not have code that is meant to harm one specific organization. The attacks are set up to mass distribute with the hopes that even just a few will work in their favor.

In addition to links and files that contain harmful material, there is also a new breed of hackers trying to break through your company’s email security wall. On the consumer side, phishing is the act of trying to defraud someone by posing as a legitimate organization (usually financial). This is usually intended to capture personal financial information but it can also be used to capture other forms of information and you want to protect your employees from these attacks. There has been an upsurge of phishing attacks on email security lately, through businesses email so it’s important to be aware of what the emails look like so you can deal with them accordingly. These email security threats generally take on the exact visual look of a financial institution email but the links they insert redirect you to the attacker’s website. At that point, the end user tries to log in and their personal information is now recorded by the attacker.

While email has become an indispensable component of our digital lives, the threats to email security have become more dangerous. Due to this increasing threat of cybercriminals, spear phishing, identity theft, spam mail, and malware, more and more organizations are making email security their priority. Some of the benefits of email security for enterprises are that it: 

• Identifies suspicious activity and alerts users when it observes any indicator of email security compromise. It ensures access control to secure the data shared in communication by using email encryption.
• Controls access to sensitive email attachments and maintain the confidentiality of email communications.
• Enhances protection against spam mail and phishing attacks. Sophisticated email security measures aid in identifying unwanted spam mail and dangerous attempts at phishing attacks and allow users to report or block such suspicious emails. 
• Provides real-time email security against zero-day threats by providing anti-spam and anti-malware protection. It makes use of a blend of different threat detection technologies such as predictive analytics and machine learning.
• Stops ransomware email security attacks and cyber threats. 

Using filters like Positini and applications like Panda Cloud can help you protect your company’s most vulnerable information. The anti-spam industry is growing quickly, and for good reason. Spam emails come in all subjects with the hopes of tricking the end user into opening them. There are over 183 billion spam messages sent every day, and many of these are sent to companies. This makes the need for email security and anti-spam software and hardware readily apparent.

Finally, there is the need to protect important corporate and personal information from inadvertent or deliberate exposure by email. There are systems from email security vendors that can scan all outgoing emails automatically and based on filtering rules, determine if an employee has sent proprietary information or other information that is forbidden by regulation. These email security systems can block the email and even inform the user as well as IT security teams so that procedures to prevent the issue from arising can be enacted. This area of email security is growing rapidly with the advent of regulatory requirements like HIPPA.

If you are concerned about your company’s email security, be sure to look into several methods for stomping out spam. This includes educating your end user as well as using hardware and software that can help filter out some of the more hazardous emails. Email security attacks like these not only cost your company resources, but they can also cost people their creditworthiness.