Email Security Solution
Email Security Solution
Email remains the number one method of communication for most organizations. It is also the number one method used by cyber criminals to infiltrate your network, steal or corrupt your data and damage your reputation. Methods of attacking email are growing more targeted, more sophisticated, and more dangerous. Right now, all industries are faced with an increasing number of phishing attacks, malicious attachments, and ransomware attacks.
A secure email gateway is essential to protecting your business from malicious content contained within emails by preventing them from reaching their intended recipient. By placing malicious emails into quarantine or blocking the sender, a secure email gateway significantly reduces the number of successful compromises of user credentials, email hosts, and sensitive company data.
Mail Security Metrics to Prevent Unwanted Outcomes
Here are the Protocols used by enterprises to prevent & mitigate security threats…
Sender Policy Framework (SPF): SPF hardens DNS servers and restricts who can send emails from the domain. SPF can prevent domain spoofing. It enables the mail server to determine when a message came from the domain that it uses. SPF has three major elements: A Policy Framework as its name implies, An Authentication Method, and Specialized Headers in the actual email itself that convey this information. SPF was first proposed with IETF standard 4408 back in 2006 and has been updated most recently to standard 7208 in 2014.
Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM): DKIM ensures that the content of emails remains trusted and hasn’t been tampered with or compromised. It was initially proposed in 2007 and has been updated several times, most recently with the IETF standard 8301 this last January. Both SPF and DKIM were updated with the IETF standard 7372 in 2014.
Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC): DMARC ties the first two protocols together with a consistent set of policies. It also links the sender’s domain name with what is listed in the header and also has some better reporting back from mail recipients. It was proposed as an IETF standard 7489 in 2015.
Threat Assessment
Here is a pictured document outlining email Security Threats
An Entire Enterprise with Ransomware,
Cryptojacking Scripts,
Data Leakages &
Privilege Escalation Exploits.
Common Ways to Mitigate Email Security Threats
Malicious Attachments: Users should not frequently open mails containing attachments from suspicious sources.
Phishing Links: Before clicking on a link, it is advised to check twice that whether the mail is from a trusted source or not.
Webmail Issues: Usage of mail within a secure environment is highly recommended means a user should avoid logging in using the browser.
Responding Securely: Should avoid selecting Reply All options while replying to a thread.
Usage of Official Email: Users should not use Official E-mail to subscribe to any social platform & Official mails should not be used in personal use.
Comprehensive Features of Email Security Solution
Email security services provide various types of email security solutions. Some of the principal email security features are as follows.
Spam Filters: A significant proportion of emails that you receive daily are marketing emails. These emails clog the email inbox in such a way that you almost miss out on some of the official or essential emails. Secondly, cybercriminals take advantage of these marketing emails by pushing in their phishing emails, as well. An unsuspecting user might open such emails and click on the malicious links provided in the phishing email. It could lead to severe repercussions like compromising one’s financial details such as bank accounts, credit card numbers, and so on.Installing spam filters can help in separating these marketing and phishing emails by directing them to a distinctive email inbox. In this way, your regular email inbox does not get clogged. Secondly, you do not miss any crucial business email.
A vital email security feature is that you can schedule the deletion of spam emails at fixed intervals. They can be deleted automatically without needing to open them.
Anti-virus Protection: Spam filters play the role of separating the spam emails from the regular ones. However, these emails remain in the inbox for a specific period following which they get deleted automatically. There is always a likelihood of the user accessing the spam email inbox and opening these email attachments.
Hackers send malicious content through such email attachments and spurious links in the messages. If a user unwittingly clicks on such links or downloads such files, there are chances of viruses spreading to their information systems. The right way to deal with such situations is to have robust anti-virus protection. This software program scans each incoming and outgoing email for malicious content and blocks their entry or exit, as the case may be. Hence, it offers better protection than the spam filters because it identifies and eliminates these viruses that can create havoc with the computer network systems.
Image & Content Control: Hackers use emails for phishing purposes. The email attachments can contain files, links, and even images. There have been numerous phishing instances in recent times where cybercriminals managed to transmit malicious software through images. Therefore, it becomes vital for email security services to protect the systems by scanning images, as well. It is one of the most crucial aspects of email security in information security.
Data Encryption: Your email data is at its most vulnerable position when it is in transit. Generally, it is transmitted in an open format. It allows cybercriminals to intercept these messages in transit and use them to lift confidential data. You could have spam filters installed on your system to identify and segregate spam emails. You could also have anti-virus protection in place. However, these email security features are of little use when you expose your email content when it is in transit.
The ideal solution is to encrypt the data sent through email. It is one of the major topics of importance regarding email security in cryptography systems. This security feature ensures that your outgoing emails are data encrypted in all respects, thereby not allowing any leeway for the hacker to infiltrate them. Advanced cryptography features safeguard the encryption of the recipient’s details and email message headers, as well. Therefore, the cybercriminals do not have any means to know either the contents or the details of the recipients of your emails.
Encrypting your emails entails that you make it difficult for hackers to access the contents of the emails. Every business organization, or for that matter, every individual, should have this email security feature installed on their computer network. It is one of the best ways to avoid becoming victims of phishing attempts.