Email Security and Anti-phishing

What is Email Security?

Email continues to be the most used channel for cyberattacks and a lucrative access point for sensitive data. The continuing reliance on email by organizations is why it’s important to have a robust solution for email security – one that is integrated and adaptive for a wide range of email-based threats.

Email security – an essential security need for any organization – comprises all the technology and policies that are designed to protect email content and communications against cyberattacks.

 

Email Security and Anti-phishing

Whether your on-prem or in the cloud, email security should protect an email inbox from everyday hackers, malware, and phishing. It should protect a brand from imposters posing as trusted colleagues, vendors, and partners intent on defrauding the brand. Last but not certainly least, it should protect an organization’s data.

What Is Anti-Phishing?

Phishing is one of the most prevalent forms of social engineering attack used to steal sensitive personal information, or to gain a foothold inside a company’s network. In a phishing attempt, malicious messages are crafted with the goal of the recipient clicking on a link or email attachment that contains malware, or in the case of Business Email Compromise (BEC), a bad actor will impersonate someone within a company to deceive the recipient into believing they’re interacting with a trusted sender.

In the ever-evolving age of sophisticated schemes and scams, a proactive anti-phishing posture is requisite when it comes to maintaining a secure email ecosystem. Anti-phishing solutions prevent potential threats from reaching employee inboxes by monitoring every message flowing into and within an organization to defend against highly targeted, identity deception-based attacks.

Threats to Email Security

Email remains a popular and convenient communication tool. For this reason, it’s also a popular access point for cyberattacks. There are many different threats to email security. Some of the most common include:

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

Scams such as executive spoofing deceive people into believing they’re interacting with a trusted sender – no malware or malicious links required.

Spear Phishing

Emails disguised as trusted communications, designed to fool people into taking action such as giving up their user credentials or opening an attachment.

Account Takeover

When a cybercriminal uses compromised accounts to exploit trust, they unleash a dangerous and insidious form of attack that can have far-reaching consequences. 

Ransomware

A type of malware that attackers use to hold data hostage unless a ransom is paid. 

Social Engineering

Attacks that rely on human interaction using personal and business context to establish trust and convince the recipient to take action.

Spam

While there are many different types of spam, this email-specific type of spam comes in the form of spyware and ransomware.  

Email Security Best Practices

How to Secure Email Inboxes

To keep inbound and outbound emails protected from security threats including phishing and data loss, a robust policy must be determined. For email security best practices, follow these six simple steps: 

  1. Determine what data needs protection: Compliance regulations dictate that sensitive data such as Personal Identifiable Information (PII), payment card details, or patient medical data is safeguarded from unauthorized disclosure. A solution that can detect and remove unauthorized sensitive data from incoming and outgoing emails, and automatically encrypt any authorized data, will protect employees and the organization if sensitive data is incorrectly sent or received. 

  1. Identify cyber threats: The right email security solution needs to prevent malware, spyware, ransomware, BEC (phishing) emails, unwanted data acquisition, and unnecessary file types from reaching inboxes. 

  1. Establish a robust and sustainable email security policy: An email security solution that’s easy to deploy, monitor, and manage will help support and enforce a policy in a way that doesn’t overburden the IT department, email administrators, or messaging teams. Features such as the ability to handle all threats from a single interface and have employees manage their own quarantine list will help increase the efficiency of the solution and ultimately free up time for IT teams to spend on other projects. 

  1. Close the zero-hour window: Anti-malware solutions are great for defending against known dangers. But what happens if a brand-new virus tries to enter a network before security loopholes have been identified? Email security solutions that can filter and analyze the content of messages and attachments and sanitize these evasive threats will help close this vulnerability. 

  1. Encrypt sensitive data: To aid compliance, email security solutions need a range of easy-to-use policy-based encryption options including TLS, PKI technologies such as S/MIME or PGP, Web-portal, or password protected messages. 

  1. Monitor traffic behavior and performance: Visibility of emails and comprehensive reporting is important when determining and enforcing policy. Email security solutions that provide detailed audit trails help IT teams investigate potential breaches. Those that export data to SIEM systems allow organizations to get a 360-degree view of the data flowing in and out of the organization.

Email Security & Anti-Phishing Solutions from Hoplon Infosec.

A robust DMARC authentication & monitoring
solution stops phishing by automating the pra:ess
of DMARC email authentication and enforcement to
protect customers from cyberattacks. In doing so, it
can help preserve brand identity and improve digital
engagement, even post-deployment.

Fortra’s Cloud Email Protection is an
cloud email security solution that combines data
science, global inbox threat intelligence, and
automated remediation into a single cloud-native
platform — stopping threats that traditional
defenses.

A secure Gateways are email security solutions that
monitor emails coming into and out of an
organization before they reach an email inbox to
protect from malicious content including sfllm,
viruses, phishing, and malware.

Frequently Asked Questions about Email Security

Email security involves protecting email accounts and communications from unauthorized access, loss, or compromise. Organizations can enhance their email security by establishing policies and using tools to guard against threats like malware, spam, and phishing attacks.

Email encryption can prevent accidents and costly data breaches. It protects confidential information such as credit card numbers, bank accounts, employee PII, and intellectual property.

Email security protects your accounts and their content against unauthorized access, data loss, or theft. Incoming emails are inspected for suspicious links and files, whether from external or internal contacts.

Encryption is a security method that ensures only the intended recipient of an email can read its contents. It converts the email message into a coded language that can only be deciphered by someone with the encryption key.

Email attachments are a valuable feature, but attackers exploit this capability to send malicious content, including malware, to their targets. One method is attaching the malicious software as an .exe file and tricking the recipient into opening it. A more common approach is to conceal malicious code within an innocent-seeming document, like a PDF or Word file. Both file types support the inclusion of code, such as macros, that attackers can use to perform malicious actions on the recipient's computer, like downloading and opening malware.

Attackers can use a stolen inbox for various purposes, including sending spam, initiating phishing attacks, distributing malware, harvesting contact lists, or using the email address to steal more of the user's accounts.

Encryption is the process of scrambling data so that only authorized parties can unscramble and read it. It's like putting a sealed envelope around a letter so that only the recipient can read its contents, even though many parties will handle the letter as it goes from sender to recipient.

Similarly, encryption is like putting a sealed envelope around an email. Most email encryption works by using public key cryptography. Some email encryption is end-to-end, protecting email contents from the email service provider as well as any external parties.

Encryption is the process of scrambling data so that only authorized parties can unscramble and read it. It's like putting a sealed envelope around a letter so that only the recipient can read its contents, even though many parties will handle the letter as it goes from sender to recipient.

Similarly, encryption is like putting a sealed envelope around an email. Most email encryption works by using public key cryptography. Some email encryption is end-to-end, protecting email contents from the email service provider as well as any external parties.

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Protect your system from cyber attacks by utilizing our comprehensive range of services. Safeguard your data and network infrastructure with our advanced security measures, tailored to meet your specific needs. With our expertise and cutting-edge technology, you can rest assured.