With the increasing use of emails as an essential communication tool, hackers are employing sophisticated ways to attack email accounts and steal vital data. Enterprises need robust email security methods and tools to secure accounts and email data.
As per a recent report by Extrapolate, “Global Email Security Market Forecast for 2023-2032,” the email security market size is anticipated to grow USD 6.29 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of approximately 3% globally.
While hackers execute phishing attacks via email, they also use them to spread malware. As email security concerns get complex, businesses must know all the strategies and tactics hackers use to steal data.
At the same time, companies must be mindful of all the dangers and set preventive measures to protect email accounts.
Types of Attacks that Occur Over Emails
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Fraud
Email-based fraud attacks can occur in various forms. Hackers execute a scam targeted at business email compromise (BEC) communications. They try to defraud business accounting teams into sending funds to fake accounts. The cyber-attacker also spoofs domains to request money that appears to come from a trustworthy source.
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Phishing
Phishing attacks trick the victim into giving the attacker their data. As per a recent report by Tessian, “The State of Email Security 2022,” in 2022, 94% of companies experienced an impersonation or spear phishing attack, while 18% of the email attacks were successful.
Email phishing attempts may deceive users into sending sensitive information under the attacker’s control. They may also direct users to a fake website to gather credentials using domain spoofing.
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Malware
Examples of malware sent by email include ransomware, spyware, scareware, and adware. There are various methods by which attackers can use email to spread malware. One of the most used methods is sending an email attachment with malicious software.
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Account Takeover
Cyber-attackers hijack users’ email accounts to read messages, steal information, or send spam and malware to their contacts. They use the accounts’ legitimate email addresses for other malicious purposes. As per the report by Tessian, 71% of businesses experienced a credential or account compromise, also called an account takeover, due to an email attack in 2022.
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Email Interception
Attackers intercept emails and steal information or out on-path attacks in which they pretend to be both parties in a conversation. They use data packet monitoring on wireless local area networks (LANs) to achieve these attacks since it is challenging to intercept emails as they go across the Internet.
Five Best Practices for Email Security
Every company must develop its unique approach to prevent email attacks by incorporating some standard strategies. Here are the top five recommendations for protecting business email.
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Backup Critical Files
An effective enterprise email security strategy decreases the likelihood of a cyber-attack; however, no security plan is 100% infallible. Enterprises must regularly and automatically back up important files to reduce possible loss in a ransomware attack.
Businesses must know that sophisticated ransomware variants may remain dormant for weeks before activation. It could potentially erase crucial files and backups.
Due to technological advances, threat actors are becoming more intelligent as they target backups to prevent recovery. Nonetheless, there are several techniques for businesses to safeguard their backups, including:
- Backup addition: Maintain extra copies in different places.
- Shut off backups: A threat of the ransomware variety will find it more challenging to attack backups the more barriers there are between a compromised system and its backups.
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Educate Employees
An effective company email security strategy must include employee education and security awareness training. Businesses must communicate the value of sensitive data, the significance of corporate email security, and the repercussions of a successful phishing attack.
As per research by Proofpoint, “2022 Cost of Insider Threats Global Report“, the time to contain an insider threat incident has increased to 85 days which was 77 days earlier. Additionally, 66% of the incidents occurred due to negligence, with remediation costs of up to USD 6.6 million.
Insider events occur due to various factors, including failing to secure equipment, neglecting the company’s security policy, and failing to patch and upgrade. Businesses can reduce this risk by educating employees and conducting regular awareness training to minimize the possibility of human error.
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Protect Email Accounts with Sender Authentication
Email authentication is a solution to prove that the email is authentic. It ensures that an email comes from a reliable source. Businesses must use email authentication to prevent harmful or fraudulent uses of email for malicious purposes.
Sender authentication uses cryptographic standards and protocols to help stop phishing attempts. It also safeguards email accounts against other dangers, such as spam and business email compromise (BEC).
Businesses can use the following email authentication protocols to enable this verification.
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Implement Multifactor Authentication (MFA)
Email accounts are vulnerable to external cyber-attacks since they contain sensitive information. Businesses must deploy MFA on their employees’ email accounts.
Remember to adopt the same MFA solution across the organization to ensure higher data security doesn’t affect user experience or productivity. More importantly, businesses must always communicate and ask their employees for feedback. It will encourage them to seek support if they encounter any issues.
Also Read: High-Risk Password Attacks and Strategies to Prevent
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Secure the Email Gateway
Installing a secure email gateway is one of the best practices. An email gateway analyses and processes all incoming and outgoing emails and eliminates the risks.
Standard security procedures are no longer effective due to the sophistication of the attacks. It is preferable to set up a secure email gateway that employs a multi-layered approach to assure the validity of email traffic.
To Wrap Things Up
The email system integrates with the organization’s overall workflow and procedures. Therefore, a robust email security system assists businesses and employees in establishing a secure work environment.
Implementing a successful business email security plan is challenging. Hence, businesses must set effective strategies, address the challenges, and educate employees to facilitate adequate email security across the organization.
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