What is Email Security?
Emails are the popular mode of communication and are widely used by individuals for personal as well as organisational needs. Due to the popularity of emails, it becomes center of attraction for hackers to spread malware, spam and virus by convincing victims to open spam mails or clicking on malicious link or attachments.
Email security ensures the safety of email communication at personal a well as organisational level by protecting email account and its content from unauthorized and malicious access.
Importance of email security
In today’s digital landscape, email has become an essential means of communication for individuals, businesses and organisations. The importance of email security lies in the fact that email is often used to exchange sensitive business and personal information. The confidentiality, integrity and availability of this information must be preserved to protect users’ privacy, avoid identity theft, prevent the loss of sensitive data and prevent cyber attacks.
The risks associated with unsecured email
Ransomware
a.k.a. Crypto- Trojan, Crypto-Worm, Crypto-Virus, Ransomware infects and takes control of the system and demands a ransom from the victim to undo it.
Spoofing
In spoofing, someone pretends to be someone else and steal data by acquiring confidence of the victim. In email spoofing, attacker sends email with fake email address.
Phishing
Phishing attack is an attempt to obtain confidential information such as username, password, credit card number etcetera by diverting users toward fake websites which appear same like legal sites.
Spear Phishing
Spear Fishing is targeted towards specific individuals or organisations. Attacker sends personalized message which appears authentic to victim who responds to the message containing malicious attachment or link
Objective of email security
The main objective of email security is to protect electronic communications against potential threats and to guarantee the confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of the data exchanged. The main objectives of email security include:
- Confidentiality: Ensuring that only authorised recipients have access to the content of emails and that sensitive information is not compromised in transit.
- Integrity: Guarantee that emails are not altered or manipulated during transmission, ensuring that recipients receive the correct information as sent.
- Authenticity: Verifying the identity of senders and ensuring that emails come from legitimate sources, by preventing the falsification of email addresses and using robust authentication mechanisms.
- Availability: Ensuring that users have access to emails when they need them, avoiding service interruptions due to attacks or security incidents.
Best Practices
- Educate yourself about email security threats and keep an eagle eye on your emails
- Use unique and strong passwords and don’t forget to change them after regular intervals
- Use encryption for emails
- Avoid using your work email for private use
- use of Advance spam filters
- Avoid opening unfamiliar attachments
- Avoid unsubscribing to emails that you