How to Protect Yourself from Cyber Attacks to Email

Today, email use is exposed to more security risk than previously anticipated. Ransomware and other malware attacks have become a huge risk for several organizations. Therefore, big and or small businesses must find ways to safeguard against emerging email security risks.  Mimecast Limited, a leading email and data security company reported that, the State of Email Security 2020 reveals 60% of organizations expect to suffer from an Email-borne attack. They further demonstrate that despite high levels of confidence in respondents’ cyber resilience strategies, there is a clear need for improvement.

Due to the growing number of needs for online communications, email remains a top security concern in 2021. When it involves email security, classic measures just like the latest antivirus software will never block cyber-attacks. Email security as a term, narrates different procedures and techniques for safeguarding email account content, and communications against unauthorized access and loss.

Hackers commonly use email to spread malware, spam, and phishing attacks by use of deceptive messages to entice recipients to dispense with sensitive information, open attachments or click on hyperlinks that install malware on the victim’s device. Email is a standard entry point where attackers look to get valuable company data from an enterprise network. However its security can be maintained by encrypting or disguising the content of email messages to guard potentially sensitive information from being read by anyone apart from intending recipients.

Email was designed to be as open and accessible as possible to permit people in organizations to communicate with one another and with people in other organizations. The difficulty is that email is not secure; which allows attackers to use it in some ways to cause problems in an endeavor to make profits. Attackers attempt to benefit from the lack of security of email to carry out their actions through spam campaigns, malware and phishing attacks, sophisticated targeted attacks, or business email compromise. Since most enterprises depend on email to do business, attackers exploit email in an effort to steal sensitive information.

Email security became a difficult issue as organizations began sending confidential or sensitive information through email. Attackers could easily read the contents of an email by intercepting it. Over the years, companies are increasing email security measures to make it harder for attackers to get their hands on sensitive or confidential information.

In today’s business world emailing has become so critical, organizations have established policies on a way to handle this information flow. One of the policies most organizations establish is viewing the contents of emails flowing through their email servers. It is important to understand what is within the entire email to act appropriately. After these baseline policies are put into effect, an enterprise can enact various security policies.

If security incidents are detected by these policies, the organization must have actionable intelligence about the scope of the attack. This may help determine what damage the attack may have caused. Once a company has visibility into all the emails being sent, they can enforce email encryption policies to safeguard sensitive email information from falling into the wrong hands.

One of the best practices that organizations should put into effect is implementing a secure email gateway. An email gateway scans and processes all incoming and outgoing email and makes sure that threats are not allowed in. Because attacks are increasingly sophisticated, standard security measures, like blocking known bad file attachments, are no longer effective. A better solution is to deploy a secure email gateway that uses a multi-layered approach.

Training employees on appropriate email usage and knowing what is good and bad. Users may receive a malicious email that slips through the secure email gateway, so it’s critical that they understand what to look for. Most frequently they are exposed to phishing attacks (Phishing is when attackers send malicious emails designed to trick people into falling for a scam). Training helps employees spot and report these types of emails.

Training employees on appropriate email usage and knowing what is good and bad. Users may receive a malicious email that slips through the secure email gateway, so it’s critical that they understand what to look for. Most frequently they are exposed to phishing attacks (Phishing is when attackers send malicious emails designed to trick people into falling for a scam). Training helps employees spot and report these types of emails.

Currently over 90% of cyber-attacks are launched by an email. Email continues to be the weakest element within the security chain. One reason for this can be that the email, by default, is not a secure communication tool, because it travels through the web from one server to another. Hence, enterprises must regularly test and improve services against risks. A number of businesses have shifted their operations online and this increases risks.

As hackers’ methods become more sophisticated, the scale of email security breaches, and also the frequency at which they occur grow greater with each passing year. But it isn’t enough for individuals to stay watchful over their emails. Businesses have to do everything within their power to safeguard their customers’ data if they need to avoid becoming the unwitting subject of the next great email security breach.

There are four primary types of email security breach of which businesses should be aware of these include;

• Spam: Though it might seem harmless, spam poses a heavy risk to data security. Once a hacker has a victim’s email address, they sign the victim up for as many unprotected sites as possible, thereby leaving them vulnerable. With their inbox flooded, the victim is less likely to notice unusual notifications or malicious behavior, enabling hackers to gain access to the victim’s accounts and operate undetected.
• Phishing: is an attack in which the hacker uses electronic communication to impersonate a trusted figure. The idea here is the recipient, seeing that the message is from a reputable source, will be more likely to provide private information, such as their account login, when requested or to open an unsecured attachment, thereby exposing themselves to a virus.
• Ransomware: Is another form of malware used to encrypt a victim’s files this data is then effectively held hostage by a hacker until the victim pays a ransom for it, typically in the form of bitcoin.
• Insider Threats: Just like the 1979 horror classic “When a Stranger Calls”, sometimes the call is coming from inside the house. Counting on their role within the company, certain employees have unlimited access to sensitive information and all it takes is one disgruntled employee for a company to find itself in the middle of an information breach.

Fortunately, there are a few easy best practices businesses can implement to improve their email security game by Investing in antivirus software. Implement a secure email gateway. Invest in a secure archiving solution. Create strong passwords and invest in multi-factor authentication. Be wary of each email attachment. It’s important to remember that you must not use the same password for multiple accounts irrespective of how strong it is because if one account gets compromised, then they’re all compromised.

When receiving email, it is important to always use sense, keen observation, and healthy skepticism to make informed decisions regarding the validity of messages. Employing the proactive techniques above can help keep your digital life secure. The best way to protect yourself and your network from such attacks are to educate yourself with what is happening with the current cyber landscape, and what to look out for to assist prevent the danger of falling prey to email cyber-attacks.

In conclusion, whether you use a small-scale nonprofit or an enterprise-level company, email security should be a top priority for each organization. We hope this text has helped you learn more about various kinds of threats businesses are up against as well as some tips on how to prevent them. You can reach out to Infotesters Limited for services against cyber-attacks and much more on info@infotesters.com.