What is common between Sarah Palin, George HW Bush, and John Podesta?
Apart from being important political figures in the United States, there’s another fact that unites them – they’ve all been victims of messy email hacks.
Sometimes, danger can often be hidden in plain sight. As cyber threats get increasingly sophisticated and complex, enterprises are constantly rushing to keep up by using a wide and varied range of cybersecurity solutions to fight cyber threats. However, sometimes, the simplest threat can often be overlooked – email is one such threat.
According to a survey, around 3 billion people use email. A staggering 246 billion emails are expected to be sent by the end of 2019. Considering the magnitude of email users around the world, this communication channel naturally becomes a lucrative target for hackers. Hence, the global populace and its biggest enterprises connecting through email must ensure that they take sufficient steps to protect this important tool.
Seqrite reveals simple measures to bolster email security.
Password protection
The golden rule for any enterprise is enforcing and keeping strong passwords followed by educating and mandating its employees to do the same. There should be no grounds for confusion – proper, easy-to-understand policies must be circulated for compliance, outlining password strength and how often they have to be changed. This is not optional – in this day and age where hackers have thousands of sophisticated tools to guess passwords, keeping strong passwords is a must.
Preventing social engineering & phishing
Social engineering occurs when employees are tricked into giving up important information like their password. They may reply to fraudulent emails and/or enter their password on a fake website, designed to look like an authentic one. This is known as phishing and it is a major social engineering tool used by hackers. Education and timely training are the only defenses against phishing attacks. Enterprises should train employees on the negative business consequences that are bound to occur if critical passwords go in the wrong hands. Employees should also be educated about distinguishers that help them identify a fraudulent website from an authentic one.
Having strong anti-malware solutions
Keyloggers are a dangerous type of malware that cybercriminals secretly install on unsuspecting victims’ devices. This can be in the form of software or hardware and is used to track user keypresses on electronic gadgets. Targets can accidentally download keyloggers by clicking on malicious links. Hackers can sneak-in and install hardware keyloggers when the concerned person is not present. In either case, keyloggers can record all key presses on a system and transmit it to a third party who will have access to all information inputted into the system including passwords, credit card numbers, personal details, etc. To prevent this, enterprises must ensure they have strong solutions, both on the physical and digital front, backed by a robust anti-malware protection suite.
Preventing Business Email Compromise (BEC)
Business Email Compromise (BEC), also known as ‘Man-In-The-Email’ or ‘CEO Fraud’, is a sophisticated type of phishing attack, carried out through elaborate means and usually with devastating effects. Basically, attackers impersonate a key organization executive (often someone who is a senior figure at the organization like a CEO) to send emails to employees within the organization. These emails exactly replicate the chosen target’s style and ask for important financial details. It is extremely important for everyone in the organization, especially those who handle sensitive information, to exercise constant vigilance when receiving emails asking for sensitive data.
Cybersecurity experts like Seqrite have developed innovative features in their products to help keep business inboxes safe. Seqrite Endpoint Security is loaded with features that strengthen an organization’s defense against malware and phishing attacks. It offers superior phishing protection against attacks that originate from malicious codes over the internet by stopping them from entering the network and spreading across.
Other features included in their email security tool help identify the nature of emails coming from various email gateways as well as provide robust protection against suspicious messages. BEC data thefts can be avoided by integrating Seqrite’s Data Loss Prevention solution with the email marketing plans. Policy-based encryption allows information to be encrypted and accessible only to authorized personnel. BEC is a serious threat but with Seqrite as your security partner, it can be tackled with ease.
