Imagine getting a love note from a cyber criminal saying, “Your IT security—or lack thereof—gives me the warm fuzzies. May I hack your emails? Check Yes or No.” Would you feel like you’ve been hit by cupid’s arrow, or would you get a pit in your stomach?
Email is one of our most common methods to conduct day-to-day business. Therefore, it is a common entry point for cyber criminals. In fact, 94% of malware is delivered by email, according to Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report.
Here are some email security best practices to prevent and mitigate the risk of email-related cyber attacks:
Implement employee training. Your employees are your first line of defense against a potential attack. Make sure they know how to recognize signs of potential threats.
Enable multifactor authentication (MFA). MFA strenthens email security by adding an extra layer of protection, such as entering a unique code sent by text to their phone.
Encrypt emails, when appropriate. Encryption can ensure that emails and their attachments are only read and received by the intended person. This is especially important if your email contains Personally Identifiable information (PII) or Personal Health Information (PHI).
Avoid public wi-fi. It’s certainly a nice gesture for restaurants and other establishments to provide wi-fi to patrons, but don’t use it! If you must connect out of necesity, make sure you connect to your company’s network with a VPN to encrypt the connection between your device and the internet.
Strate Insurance Group is not an IT provider, but we do counsel our clients on smart practices to reduce their risk of a cyber attack. We always recommend that our clients partner with a professional IT firm to help them construct a secure IT infrastructure.
Tell cyber secret admirers to buzz off and give some love to your internal email security processes and procedures.
