6 Email Security Best Practices for Today’s Businesses

6 Email Security Best Practices for Today’s Businesses

Email is the most common method for staying in touch and conducting business in today’s connected world. That means email security is a primary concern. If your emails are intercepted or compromised, it can result in serious consequences for your business.

The good news is that today, by taking a few steps and setting security standards, it’s possible to prevent the most serious email security circumstances.

Here are six email security best practices to help keep your business safe.

1. User Awareness Training – Educating and training employees at every level of the organization to identify malicious emails and the tactics used in email by criminals is critical. User awareness training is also one of the easiest and most cost-effective solutions for avoiding sensitive information/credentials leakage and preventing clicks on infected files/links that can infect your network with ransomware.
2. Use SSL Protected Email Servers – Secure Socket Layer protection allows you to safely communicate with your server using enhanced encryption security. It uses two “keys” – one public, one private. Both are used to unencrypt emails and only the recipient has access to the private key. If your email is intercepted, it is unreadable without the private key.
3. Use Enterprise-Level Spam Filters – Spam can be malicious. It’s often the delivery method of choice for phishing schemes, and accidentally downloading malicious software from a seemingly reputable source can put your entire network and business at risk. Enterprise-level spam filtering can keep dangerous emails out of your inbox, eliminating the risk.
4. Close and Forward Ex-Employee Email Accounts – Closing their email account when an employee leaves ensures that they no longer have access to your business. Forwarding their emails to their replacement ensures business continuity.
5. Don’t Use Outlook to Send Mass Emails – Use third-party platforms like Constant Contact or MailChimp for sending mass emails. If you use your Outlook account, mass emails will likely be flagged as spam, which can get you shut down by your email provider.
6. Protect Passwords – Not all breaches happen online. It can be as simple as having an unprotected laptop stolen. Require employees to password-protect mobile devices to keep them secure. This adds an additional layer of protection preventing access to email, contacts, and data. Implementing basic multi-factor authentication can significantly reduce the risks associated with unauthorized access and compromise of user email accounts, administrator accounts and corporate email systems.  As email has become one of the most critical business services and the #1 source for breaches, validating user access and preventing unauthorized access should be a top priority.

Today, it’s critical to protect your employees, customers, and data from security threats. By implementing these email best practices, you can safely mitigate risk and protect your company from attack.