4 Basics of Email Security
Email is still the default form of communication for businesses. Email has come a long way but there are still plenty of security issues around email.
- Spam filtering
Filtering out spam not only saves your employees the time they would spend slogging through Viagra ads, but it also increases your email security. It either automatically dumps these emails to your junk folder or keeps them out of your network entirely.
- Attachment Scanning
Most email security calamities come in via email attachments. Users unwittingly download ransomware, viruses, or spyware via cleverly named attachments. The two most popular attachments we are seeing are invoices and resumes. Attachment scanning uses advanced techniques to detect if the attachment contains malicious code. Most systems will then alert the user and remove the attachment.
- Email Encryption
To prevent your email from being intercepted and/or read by anyone other than the intended recipients, email encryption is a must.
Email encryption essential scrambles your email into unreadable gibberish unless your recipient has access to the private key.
- User Knowledge
Even with all of these tools, user education is still the most important security factor. One common approach we see is what is called spear-fishing. A criminal sends a particular email that looks like it is coming from a boss or CEO which contains malicious code. A well-educated user is the last line of defense in email security.