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7.3 What Is Email Security

Email security encompasses techniques and technologies to protect email accounts and communications, as email is a major target for phishing and malware attacks. Common email threats include phishing, spam, and spoofing, which can significantly harm an organization's data and reputation. Best practices for email security include using spam filters, email encryption, antivirus protection, secure email gateways, multi-factor authentication, and employee education to mitigate risks.

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42 views2 pages

7.3 What Is Email Security

Email security encompasses techniques and technologies to protect email accounts and communications, as email is a major target for phishing and malware attacks. Common email threats include phishing, spam, and spoofing, which can significantly harm an organization's data and reputation. Best practices for email security include using spam filters, email encryption, antivirus protection, secure email gateways, multi-factor authentication, and employee education to mitigate risks.

Uploaded by

mrnirajbro
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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What Is Email Security?

Email security is the techniques and technologies used to protect email accounts and
communications. Email, which is an organization’s largest attack surface, is the primary
target of phishing attacks and can be used to spread malware.

How Secure Is Email?

Email is a top threat vector because it is a most useful tool that everyone in an organization
uses. It is in an open format that can be read on any device without decryption once it is
intercepted.

Types of Email Attacks

Cyber criminals use many different tactics to hack email, and some methods can cause
considerable damage to an organization’s data and/or reputation. Malware, which is
malicious software used to harm or manipulate a device or its data, can be placed on a
computer using each of the following attacks.

1. Phishing

A phishing attack targets users by sending them a text, direct message, or email. The
attacker pretends to be a trusted individual or institution and then uses their
relationship with the target to steal sensitive data like account numbers, credit card
details, or login information.

2. Spam
Spam is defined as irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent to a large number of
Internet users, for illegitimate advertising, and other activities such as phishing, and
spreading malware.

3. Spoofing

Spoofing is a dangerous email threat because it involves fooling the recipient into thinking the
email is coming from someone other than the apparent sender. This makes spoofing an
effective business email compromise (BEC) tool. The email platform cannot tell a faked email
from a real one because it merely reads the metadata—the same data the attacker has
changed.
Email Security Best Practices

Email is a primary weapon for spreading ransomware, an advanced threat that can affect
multiple endpoints as well as steal sensitive data. Therefore, an email protection plan needs to
include the following best practices to protect email traffic in real time.

1. Spam filter: A spam filter can detect spam and keep it from either hitting your inbox or file it
as junk mail.
2. Email encryption: Email encryption can disguise corporate email by changing
communications into a garbled arrangement of letters, numbers, and symbols that someone
who intercepts it cannot read.
3. Antivirus protection: Antivirus protection screens emails and attachments for viruses,
providing the user with warnings if anything suspicious is detected.
4. Secure email gateway (SEG): An SEG filters out potentially dangerous emails according to
the settings of an IT administrator.
5. Multi-factor authentication (MFA): MFA is a key data loss protection and anti-hacking tool
because it requires a user to provide more than one authentication factor to prove they should
be granted access to a system.
6. Employee education: Employees can be educated to recognize social engineering, phishing,
and other types of attacks that are typically executed using email.

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