What Every Business Needs to Know About Email Security

Email security stands at the frontline of every online business, protecting all of the sensitive, company-specific information from any hackers looking to misuse it. So, what sort of malicious strategies do potential thieves employ, can an email ever be truly “secure”, and what is IceWarp doing to protect its clients?

What Even Is Email Security?

The topic of email security is a broad one. To put it simply, email security is the practice of preventing email-based cyberattacks, protecting email accounts from being taken over by undesirable entities, and securing the content of emails.

It seems pretty straightforward. Millions of businesses around the world use email on a daily basis to discuss the projects they’re working on, stay in touch with one another, pass along private information either about their employees or customers, and so on. The possibilities for email are seemingly endless, as are the ways in which emails can be targeted. But isn’t email inherently secure?

Not As Secure As You Think

Unfortunately, your email account is only as secure as the protection offered by the email provider. For instance, the biggest names in the email space, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, don’t even provide end-to-end message encryption. This means that any email sent from your ordinary Google account, for example, is just flying through virtual space, ready to be read by anything with access to them.

In fact, you might be shocked to know that Google, as well as other providers, even scans each and every one of your emails for keywords so it can then show you targeted ads later on.

3 Common Ways Thieves Steal Information

But seeing ads for new sandals for the next month because you emailed your mom about her vacation last week isn’t actually the worst consequence of an unsecured email account. Hackers and other cyber wrongdoers have a myriad of ways of trying to get as much of whatever kind of information they can via your company’s email.

#1. Gone Phishing

The first method that most of us have at least heard of is “phishing”. In short, the criminal running a phishing attack does their best to trick or convince the victim into giving up sensitive information. They do this by directing users to fake websites that immediately collect their credentials, or simply by pressuring the victim into sending sensitive information to another email secretly controlled by the attacker.

#2. Spam, Spam, and More Spam

Another scheme that all too many businesses are familiar with is “spamming”. We all hate spam; in fact, plenty of us go well out of our way to never even open our spam folders if we don’t have to. But for corporations with potentially hundreds or even thousands of employees all using linked business emails, spam can create a problem they can’t just sweep away to the spam folder.

A lot of spam focuses on clogging your business inbox as much as possible, stealing IP address space, or even making it out of the spam folder and directly to the employees by spoofing domains that seem legitimate and avoiding any spam detectors. The moment one of your team members clicks on a single authentic-looking link, we’re right back in the phishing scenario mentioned above.

#3. Deception and Interception

Although there are (unfortunately) loads of other ways to steal sensitive information from business emails, including ransomware, malware, account takeovers, fraud, and more, the last significant method we’ll mention here is known as “email interception”.

Perpetrators can intercept emails and gain access to the information they contain. One tactic they use to do this is to carry out on-path attacks where they impersonate both sides of the conversation. Here, the most common process is to monitor network data packets on wireless local area networks (LANs) because actually intercepting in-transit emails over the internet is (luckily) extremely difficult.

Time For an Upgrade

By now, it should be pretty clear why every company needs to provide excellent email security. Otherwise, they’re at risk at all times, which is only exasperated by the number of employees, clients, and customers they have (more emails = higher risk of attack).

IceWarp is well aware of the issues businesses are facing with email security. For that reason, we’ve dedicated both time and resources to improving the already highly-secure business email for our customers.

The highlight of IceWarp’s new Gen 2 Upgrade 3 is its collaboration with the well-established Sophos Antivirus. Sophos provides the award-winning security features enjoyed by Fortune 500 companies all over the world. But how specifically does the addition of Sophos help IceWarp customers?

The Perfect Team-Up

If we’re talking specifics, Sophos takes email security to the next level by ensuring real-time antivirus, security management, web protection, malware scanning and cleaning, AI threat detection, and so much more.

And if you consider everything IceWarp already offers in the way of email security, Sophos makes for the ideal partner with IceWarp. Now IceWarp’s signature-based AntiVirus, online CYREN AntiSpam, two-factor authenticator, message encryption, and cloud-based spam limiter can work hand in hand with everything Sophos adds to the mix. It’s safe to say that all users are sure to notice the immediate benefits that come with this upgrade.

Close the Door to Attackers For Good

As cyber-attacks only continue to grow in sophistication, there’s never been a better time for business email providers to up their game and provide better email security than ever before. This idea was the direct motivation for IceWarp’s latest update. With the inclusion of Sophos, IceWarp customers can enjoy an even more secured business email to make you, and everyone else at work, feel truly safe.

When it comes to email security, the best (and often the only) offense is an impenetrable defense. Don’t accidentally leave the door open to your company’s “secure” emails; you never know who might be trying to sneak in, steal information, or simply do as much damage as they can. Instead, rest easy knowing IceWarp and Sophos have your business emails on permanent lockdown, and you’ve got the only key!

Experience the Relief of True Email Security for Yourself with IceWarp!

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