Did you know more than 75% of cyberattacks begin with an email? Email is one of the most common entry points for cybercriminals to target and breach organizations. The opportunity to compromise email is great especially when you consider 333.2 billion emails are sent and received each day. It’s vital that businesses need to make email security a top priority.

How Emails Are Used to Breach Organizations

Email is the primary means of communication in business today. Many have come to trust email technology where messages are created by an email client or generated by an automated system and then formatted to be transmitted via the internet using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). But cybercriminals have turned this into a potential vulnerability. Their methods of attack vary and constantly evolve. Here are a few of the common, yet effective ones.

• A phishing attack is where a malicious actor pretends to be a person or organization the intended victim trusts while requesting sensitive information over email. The attacker may ask for login credentials, financial account info, or sensitive company data. Phishing remains the most common attack vector used by cybercriminals.
• Spear phishing. Spear phishing is when an attacker tries to get sensitive information by honing in on one individual or a group of people in an organization. The hacker uses specific information to make the attack look more believable. For example, they may pretend to be someone from a company with whom the target has an account, such as Google, Apple, or a vendor the organization does business with.
• Spam campaigns. Spam campaigns consist of unwanted emails sent out in bulk. On the surface, while irritating, they may seem relatively innocent, but some may have malicious links that, when clicked, download malicious software or bring users to sites designed to steal their data.
• Ransomware and other malware. Malware is a general term for any malicious software, and ransomware is a specific type of malware. Ransomware, when installed, prevents the victim from accessing their computer or a specific network element. The attacker then demands that the organization pay a ransom to regain access to their files or system components.

How to Secure Your Email at the Endpoint

Malicious hackers use numerous methods to carry out business email compromise (BEC) schemes, gaining access to a business email account to defraud the company. They may impersonate someone in management or create actionable emails that seem genuine. The threat of BEC can be avoided or at least minimized if you have a properly configured email system.

Businesses should also implement a comprehensive endpoint management strategy complete with endpoint security and user security to proactively defend against email threats. By enabling a comprehensive strategy for endpoints, you’ll be better secured against unwanted intruders. Managed Detection and Response is an aspect of endpoint security that delivers added protection using sophisticated software that provides automatic threat detection and mitigation against threats.

Empowering Employees to Make Secure Email Decisions

It’s also important to ensure your employees are part of your endpoint and email security strategy. By enabling Inbox Detection and Response, employees can verify if an email is genuine or if it is a threat, and you’ll be able to protect your infrastructure while reinforcing good email habits for employees. With Inbox Detection and Response, it’s easy for employees to submit a questionable email for review directly from within Outlook. The email will then be flagged as a threat and removed from all inboxes at the company or identified as safe for the employee to engage with.

Beyond software that makes it easy for employees to make smart and secure email decisions, businesses should also provide security awareness training to their staff. Educating employees about the risks and how to identify threats can greatly improve your organization’s email security. Users are your last line of defense. The more they know the less prone they are to fall victim to a phishing scam or other security incident. Our service includes monthly phishing simulations and Security Awareness Training courses with automated reporting to track your results.

Implementing Email Security

Whether you need to configure your organization’s email system more securely, implement endpoint security, or train and educate users, TPx has the resources and professional expertise to help you. The benefits of our Managed Security Services can help protect your organization and secure its communication.

Talk to a security expert at TPx to see how we can help improve your email security and ask about how you can get Security Awareness Training for free when you purchase Inbox Detection and Response. Don’t delay as this is a limited time offer.