Six Best Email Security Practices to Protect Against Phishing Attacks and Other Threats

Most cyber-attacks start by email - a user is tricked into opening a malicious attachment or clicking on a malicious link and disclosing credentials or responding with confidential data. Attackers deceive victims by using carefully crafted emails to create a false sense of trust and/or urgency. And they use a variety of techniques to do this - falsifying trusted domains or brands, impersonating well-known users, using previously compromised contacts to launch campaigns, and/or using attractive but malicious content in the email. In the context of an organization or company, every user is a target and, if committed, a channel for a possible breach that can be very expensive.

Whether it's sophisticated attacks by nation-states, targeted phishing scams, compromised commercial e-mails, or ransomware attacks, these advances are increasing at an alarming rate and also growing in sophistication. Therefore, it is imperative that each organization's security strategy includes a robust email security solution.

So what should IT and security teams look for in a solution to protect all users, from frontline employees to directors? Here are six tips to ensure your organization has a strong email security posture:

1) You Need an Adaptable and Rich Protection Solution.

As security solutions evolve, bad actors quickly adapt their methodologies to remain undetected. Polymorphic attacks designed to prevent common protection solutions are becoming more and more common. Therefore, organizations need solutions that focus on targeted, zero-day attacks, as well as known vectors. Known or purely standards-based signatures and reputation-based checks will not be enough.

Solutions that include advanced blasting capabilities for files and URLs are needed to capture attacks based on malicious code. Advanced machine learning models, which analyze email content and headers, in addition to sending patterns and communication graphics, are important to prevent a wide range of attack vectors, including vectors without malicious code, as compromise business email. Machine learning features are greatly enhanced when the signal source that powers it is wide and rich; therefore, solutions that have a massive base of safety signs should be preferred. It also allows the solution to learn and adapt quickly to changes in attack strategies, which is especially important for a rapidly changing threat landscape.

2) Complexity Creates Challenges. A System That Is Easy to Set Up and Maintain Reduces the Chances of a Breach.

Complicated email flows can introduce moving parts that are difficult to sustain. As an example, complex message routing flows to enable protections for internal email settings can cause compliance and security challenges. Products that require unnecessary configuration deviations to function can also cause security breaches. As an example, the settings implemented to ensure delivery of certain types of e-mail (for example, simulation e-mails) are often poorly developed and exploited by attackers.

Solutions that protect e-mails (external and internal) and offer value without the need for complicated configurations or e-mail flows are a great benefit for organizations. Also, look for solutions that offer easy ways to bridge the gap between security and messaging teams. Message teams, motivated by a desire to ensure delivery, can create overly permissive bypass rules that affect security. The sooner these problems are detected, the better for general security. Solutions that provide information to security teams when this happens can greatly reduce the time needed to correct failures, thereby reducing the chances of an expensive breach.

3) A Breach Is Not an "if", It Is a "When". Make Sure You Have Post-delivery Detection and Correction.

Nenhuma solução é 100% eficaz no vetor de prevenção porque os invasores estão sempre mudando suas técnicas. Seja cético em relação a qualquer reivindicação que sugira o contrário. Adotar uma mentalidade de “presumir violação” garantirá que o foco não esteja apenas na prevenção, mas também na detecção e resposta eficientes. Quando um ataque passa pelas defesas, é importante que as equipes de segurança detectem rapidamente a violação, identifiquem de forma abrangente qualquer impacto potencial e corrijam a ameaça com eficácia.

Solutions that offer guides for automatically investigating alerts, analyzing the threat, assessing the impact, and taking (or recommending) remedial actions are critical to an effective and efficient response. In addition, security teams need rich research and search experience to easily search the body of the email for specific indicators of compromise or other entities. Make sure the solution allows security teams to search for threats and remove them easily.

Another critical component of the effective response is ensuring that security teams have a good source of signals from what end-users see arriving in their inbox. It is critical to have an easy way for end-users to report problems that automatically trigger security guides.

4) Your Users Are the Target. You Need an Ongoing Model to Improve User Awareness and Readiness.

A well-informed and conscientious workforce can dramatically reduce the number of instances of compromise by email-based attacks. Any protection strategy is incomplete without a focus on improving the level of awareness of end-users.

An essential component of this strategy is to increase user awareness through phishing simulations, training them on items to watch for in suspicious emails to ensure that they are not victims of real attacks. Another component of this strategy, often overlooked, but just as critical, is ensuring that the daily apps used by end-users help to raise awareness. Resources that offer relevant tips, easy ways to check the validity of URLs, and make it easy to report suspicious emails in the app - all without compromising productivity - are very important.

Solutions that offer phishing simulation features are essential. Look for deep application integrations that allow users to view the original URL behind any link, regardless of any protection applied. This helps users to make informed decisions. In addition, it is essential to have the ability to offer tips to increase user awareness in a given email or website. Also important are the easy ways to report suspicious emails that, in turn, trigger automated response workflows.

5) Invaders Don't Think About Silos. Nor the Defenses.

Although email is the dominant attack vector, attackers and phishing attacks will go where users collaborate, communicate, and keep their information confidential. As forms of sharing, collaboration, and communication other than e-mail have become popular, attacks targeting these vectors have also increased. For this reason, it is important to ensure that an organization's anti-phishing strategy is not just about email.

Make sure the solution offers protection features targeted to the collaboration services your organization uses. Features like detonation, which scans suspicious documents and links when shared, are essential to protect users from targeted attacks. The ability of client applications to check links at the time of click provides additional protection, regardless of how content is shared with them. Look for solutions that support this feature.

6) Invaders Don't Think About Silos. Nor the Defenses.

Attackers target the weakest link in an organization's defenses. They seek an initial breach to enter and, once inside, will look for various ways to increase the scope and impact of the breach. They usually do this by trying to compromise other users, moving laterally within the organization, elevating privileges when possible, and finally reaching a critical value system or data repository. As they proliferate in the organization, they touch different points, identities, mailboxes, and services.

Reducing the impact of such attacks requires rapid detection and response. This can only be achieved when the defenses of these systems do not work in silos. That is why it is essential to have an integrated view of security solutions like total security. Look for an email security solution that integrates well with other security solutions, such as endpoint protection, identity protection, etc. Look for richness in integration that goes beyond signal integration, but also in detection and response flows.