Email Security Intelligence - Why Your Business Needs Superior Email Protection

As you continue to improve your business, you must strengthen your cybersecurity platforms to combat any email threats that head your way. In today's heightened digital threat environment, your company must do everything possible to secure email accounts to keep your business safe from data loss, account takeovers, and business email compromise.

This article will briefly answer basic email security questions and detail various options to consider when enhancing your email protection software.

What is Email Security and Its Purpose? Why is It Necessary?

The most commonly utilized email platforms have cybersecurity vulnerabilities, leaving servers susceptible to attacks. Cybercriminals can instigate email security issues that can compromise data, decrease productivity, and harm a business's reputation. Therefore, organizations must have an effective solution to protect their business from risk.

Businesses spend more time now than ever on implementing advanced threat protection options that can prevent exploits. However, malware ransomware, phishing email attacks, and account takeovers still hit users, taking up over sixty percent of email security breaches. Companies have more employees working remotely over time, and the distance workers have from their businesses gives cybercriminals a leg-up for attacks.

Guardian Digital CEO Dave Wreski elaborates, "Consistent with these findings, our EnGarde Cloud Email Security has identified and blocked more spear phishing emails in April of 2020 than in any other month in the company's twenty-year history. Now is not the time to overlook the importance of securing business email with multi-layered, real-time protection." You must install email protection software immediately to combat risks.

How Can I Safeguard My Business with Email Security?

Organizations must improve email security before exchanging login credentials and other sensitive data that cybercriminals could obtain through interference. Here are a few tips that can help fortify your email against general email threats:

Understand the Frequency of Risk on Email

Focus on the basic knowledge you must have regarding threat actors and attacks. Over ninety percent of cyberattacks result from spoofed emails, compromised accounts, or other exploited email features. Email platforms are threat actors' preferred locations for attack, so you must maintain the integrity of your business email with an effective strategy.

Consider implementing a comprehensive, fully managed cloud email security solution that frequently updates to stay on top of the rapidly evolving threat landscape. This solution can secure email and improve your company's digital posture by allowing you and the software operators to learn about each other's assets and the best methods for safeguarding your business email. Once you have these email protection procedures in place, you can focus on holding email security training and programs that can teach your employees more about frequent risks.

Utilize Endpoint Security, but Avoid Relying on It

Organizations tend to think that endpoint security is all a business needs to stay protected against modern digital threats. However, endpoint security is a last resort, so only using endpoint protection can leave your organization vulnerable to detrimental damage. Endpoint protection solutions do not have the security capabilities to combat advanced exploits like zero-day attacks that can leave out-of-date servers at risk of business email compromise issues and security breaches.

Relying only on endpoint security is inconvenient, inefficient, and unrealistic. Companies ought to find other ways to ensure email protection since endpoint evaluations are difficult to see, and administrators tend not to get the information they need from an analysis.

Install Multi-Layered Email Protection

The default email protection on Microsoft 365 Security and Google Workspace must improve at combating credential phishing, account takeovers, and other advanced email threats. Therefore, companies must upgrade their services to have a defense-in-depth solution to secure email at all levels.

The FBI explains that thirty percent of phishing email attacks reach users through built-in cybersecurity features, and ninety-two percent of companies already have at least one credential that cybercriminals compromised. The switch to remote work following the pandemic has heightened the risk of cloud email attacks, and the United States Department of Homeland Security warned that organizations must be careful when initiating remote Microsoft 365 deployments to prevent overlooking critical security configurations.

Invest in Email Security Awareness Programs and Training

Suppose you are a CIO, administrator, IT professional, or security researcher. In that case, you understand how valuable security is to protecting sensitive data and preventing the consequences of a successful phishing email attack. However, you must ensure the rest of your employees understand the risk to ensure everyone does everything possible to stop an attack.

Train your employees through email security programs where you can inform workers about the various aspects of a sound digital security strategy and where there might be cybersecurity vulnerabilities in your network. Since employees are typically the first line of defense, ensuring they understand email security is necessary. However, implement technology that only partially relies on human behavior to configure itself, as sometimes employees will make detrimental mistakes.

How Can I Combat Email Security Issues for My Business?

More email threats formulate every day. Fortunately, we have plenty of best practices for email security that administrators, employees, users, and organizations can implement to mitigate any issues:

• Inspect every email you receive. If it seems remotely suspicious, consider contacting the sender in another format to confirm the email's legitimacy. You can call or email in a separate thread to verify the sender. Avoid hitting reply on the current thread, as that can give cybercriminals a chance to enter your system if they have yet to do so already.
• Utilize malware URL scanners and other advanced threat detection options on links, attachments, and downloads to ensure they are safe from viruses and malicious coding that could lead to Business Email Compromise and account takeovers.
• Regularly practice email security patching while staying up-to-date on the latest email threats that could threaten your system if you do not take care of these cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
• Install software that can automatically create and protect your backups so that threat actors do not compromise your only file copy in the event of an attack. This method is beneficial if you are dealing with ransomware, which can encrypt your data and make it impossible to get back.
• Think before making any move to report or reply to the attack. Slow down and evaluate each email before you interact with the message.
• Consider Guardian Digital’s cloud email security solutions, which can combat everyday email threats through various software and frequent monitoring and management.

Implementing these email security best practices can help you improve the security posture for your business and your company's overall reputation.

Keep Learning About Business Email Security

Providing email protection for your business is essential to helping your company continue to thrive, and you must do everything you can to guarantee that you mitigate as many email security risks as possible. 

Are you interested in protecting your users, data, and business with a threat-ready, fully managed cloud email security solution? Sign up for one of our free security assessments as you learn to navigate new cybersecurity platforms. Partner with a leader in the industry today by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..