Principles – explanation by the expert
Leading provider of solutions for business email security
What is e-mail security?
Email continues to be the most important channel for corporate communications, which makes it a popular target for hackers. As such, email security is considered a key aspect of an organization’s cybersecurity strategy. Email security protects infrastructure, employees and data from cyber threats such as malware, ransomware and phishing to ensure business continuity and reliability of the organization. Providing mechanisms against the theft of confidential customer or company data or accidental data loss builds customer and partner trust and increases overall business resilience. Compliance with data protection laws and industry regulations is another important aspect of email security that can safeguard against legal implications and fines.
Email security essentials
The fundamental elements of an organization’s cybersecurity, whether on-premise or in the cloud:
- Anti-malware: AV and URL scanners against viruses, ransomware, phishing, etc.
- Securing email server with firewalls and regular updates of security patches, email clients, software and security systems.
- Spam filters against annoying spam with malicious codes
- Access controls and monitoring: multifactor authentication (MFA), strong passwords, access controls by roles and responsibilities, logs
- Encryption of outgoing emails to protect their content and attachments from fraudulent use
- Security training for employees: raising awareness to detect and prevent cyber threats such as phishing
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP) to identify suspicious account behavior and sensitive information in outbound emails and prevent accidental data leaks
- Incident response protocols
- Endpoint protection of devices
- Regular backup of email data for fast disaster recovery
Top email threats and security risks & GBS solutions for advanced email security, compliance and productivity
Ransomware – This top attack triggers a code that encrypts sections of the system and blocks its use, causing downtime and business disruption. Access is granted only after a large ransom is paid. But even then the system often remains compromised and the company’s confidential data is exposed, leading to enormous financial losses.
Phishing – Phishing and ransomware account for nearly 70% of all email attacks. In phishing attacks, hackers use social engineering to make the email look authentic. With this, they trick the recipient into opening a malicious attachment, following a link, or passing on sensitive data.
Spam – About one quarter of spam emails are phishing emails. Spam messages are annoying, reduce server performance due to traffic, and overload mailboxes.
Business Email Compromise – A BEC attack is an email that looks like it comes from a trusted sender within (usually upper management) or outside (partners, law firms) the company. It usually prompts for a money transfer, disclosure of credentials or confidential information. BEC is one of the most costly attacks.
Supply Chain Attack – This type of phishing attack pretends to be an email from a whitelisted or trusted third-party provider. In this way, the hacker wants to compromise the victim via their business partners, who have weaker security. Often email spoofing is used, where the sender’s address is faked to look like it is from a known source.
Data Loss – Data leaks can result not only from phishing attacks, but also when employees send e-mails containing sensitive information. This usually happens by mistake, for example when they attach the wrong file or send it to the wrong recipient.
Account Hijacking/ Impersonation -These two account manipulations are often used to harvest information for a subsequent business email compromise.
Zero-Day Attacks – Zero-day is a security vulnerability in the software that has not yet been detected. Hackers who have discovered it exploit it until it is fixed.
AI-generated attacks – AI-generated email attacks are not only more successful, but also save hackers time and effort. AI generates highly convincing phishing emails.
What email security methods does GBS use?
Malware Protection:
- URL scanner
- Retro-active scanning
- IBAN detection and matching with whitelist IBANs
Email Spam filter with content analysis based on Machine Learning and email classification.
- Content recognition such as for credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other sensitive information
Malware removal from email attachments with Content Disarm & Reconstruction.
Protection of Sensitive Data:
Email encryption based on content
- Server-based
- PDF-based
- Dynamic digital signing of e-mails and documents
Email Data Loss Prevention in outgoing emails
- Detection of suspicious text patterns, file types and behavioral anomalies
- Block sensitive emails from unauthorized employees
- Four-eyes principle
- Defining access authorization
- Detection of insider threats
- Protection against unauthorized access
Email Management:
- Centralized management of email accounts
- Application of corporate and governance policies
- Adherence to various compliance requirements
- Legally compliant, long-term email archiving
- Monitoring, reporting, and logging of security incidents
- Transparency and trackability of security measures
Documentation
Would you like to learn more about how our iQ.Suite technology can strengthen your email protection and empower your business?
Simply contact our Sales team at sales@gbs.com to make an inquiry and we’ll be happy to help you find out what your company needs.
More questions about email security
“What is the process for GBS’s email security service?”
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for email security is typically implemented by subscribing to a third-party cloud-based email security platform. GBS manages the infrastructure, updates and maintenance of the service. Companies route their email traffic to the SaaS platform, where it is thoroughly scanned for spam, malware and phishing attempts. The SaaS solution applies advanced filtering techniques, encryption and authentication mechanisms to enhance security. It also offers additional features such as data loss prevention, archiving and reporting. This approach ensures easy, scalable and effective email security without the need for extensive and expensive internal infrastructure and management.
“What matters in business email security?”
Since 95% of successful cyberattacks are due to human error, companies should conduct regular security training alongside technical precautions. This way, they sensitize employees on how to avoid data leaks, recognize threats and prevent them. After all, employees are the main target of social engineering attacks such as phishing.
“What arrangements can be made on the part of the company?”
Implementing well-defined security policies and robust security measures is as important as monitoring and analyzing them. Automated and centrally controlled solutions reduce effort and the likelihood of errors and enable monitoring and reporting through dashboards. This allows vulnerabilities to be identified and eliminated more quickly.
“How can corporate email security be improved?”
The following measures are a “must” to increase email security in a company:
- Firewalls and antivirus scanners
- Content Disarm & Reconstruction to remove malware in attachments
- Spam filter
- Email encryption
- Employee security training to prevent phishing and other cyber threats
- Access authorization
- Strong passwords and two-factor authentication
- Data Loss Prevention software
- Suspicious activity monitoring
- Security patch updates
- Zero-trust policy
- Proper data archiving
