Email has become more vital in our lives. Emails have grown into a crucial mode of communication, serving a wide range of functions, from important business communications to personal notes. Business emails, on the other hand, have been a main target for hackers as they have grown in use. Organizations are concerned about the high risk of data breaches and identity theft posed by emails. Therefore, everyone in the organization must understand and follow the most secure email security protocols.
Based on Spike‘s guidelines, we’ve outlined the top security policies you should use to maintain safe email communication in your company.
Enforce Strong Password Policies
Weak passwords are responsible for 30% of data breaches; thus, it is vital to encourage staff to develop strong ones. Although professionals used to believe that complex passwords were the solution, their advice on password security has changed in recent years. When you don’t provide your employees with a password manager and ask them to create complex passwords, they often either forget or write them down on a Post-it note.
Encrypt Email Communication
Encryption significantly increases the security of email communication. This technology safeguards data security and content during communication, as well as against data interception and eavesdropping, in businesses where privacy and secrecy are paramount.
Businesses may make specialized decisions for their unique requirements owing to the availability of several types of email encryption, such as end-to-end encryption. The use of encryption technologies adds another layer of security to email servers and the infrastructure that supports email.
Train Employees
Your staff should be trained in the best cyber security practices, including identifying warning signs of phishing attempts. Your employees are less likely to fall victim to tricks if they are more knowledgeable about the security of their email accounts. They will not click on a link or attachment containing a virus since it is harmful.
Everyone in your business must be aware of the threats associated with email and take steps to prevent them. An example of a phishing attack is an email sent by an unknown sender with an unclear or nonexistent subject line, or an email with unexpected attachments. Furthermore, people should be informed that they should not communicate important information by email.
Get Smart about Attachments and Links
Attachments and URLs are the most prevalent ways that dangerous malware enters a computer system.
Attachments are easy to forget about. Trend Micro performed research in 2019 and found that the kind of files that often included harmful software were those that an office worker would expect to receive. PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and zipped folders were all examples of these files. Furthermore, a large percentage of them are transmitted in the form of invoices, database exports, or any other document that seems to be perfectly acceptable for a business. Hackers may easily include code in an attachment that becomes active when the file is downloaded.
Create Effective Spam Filters
Modern email providers already filter out some emails before they ever reach your inbox. However, you should still be able to create your effective spam filters. To have even more control over what your employees get, you may adjust the spam filters on most providers’ accounts.
Think about the anti-spam features your system now has and see whether there’s room for improvement. These filters are vital for detecting emails that seem suspicious, which helps to avoid employees being tricked into clicking on harmful links.
Use Two-factor Authentication
The security measures have been regularly updated and improved over the last decade to provide full protection and even more security. This has included new techniques and refinements to existing ones. An effective security measure that requires two separate forms of multi-factor authentication to get access to user accounts is known as two-factor authentication, and it is one of the most useful updates.
The use of a strong password is the primary need, and sending a code-containing text message to your mobile devices is the secondary component. Another very secure component is the use of biometrics, which include face, fingerprint, and retinal identification. You may be certain that your accounts are well protected by these elements, which are notoriously hard to hack.
Set Sensible Microsoft Permissions
The Microsoft 365 Admin Center interface allows you to restrict the sorts of emails that your employees may send and receive. Additionally, you may prevent workers from accessing their company email accounts from a personal device.
On the one hand, this strategy is better than all others for securing your business email accounts. Despite this, such tight processes may hurt productivity. When it comes to businesses that deal directly with clients, prohibiting the exchange of emails is not an option.
Even though you do not want to take unnecessary risks, you must give your staff some leeway and flexibility. The most conservative course of action is to activate a “transport block,” which prohibits unauthorized file extensions from being utilized.
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