12 Essential Tips for Keeping Your Email Safe

Hey, did you get that sketchy email? You know, the one from that malicious hacker trying to fool us into clicking on some malware? Boy, these criminals are relentless. Wait, what? You clicked on it? Uh-oh.

A hypothetical scenario, but one that plays out every day in organizations across the globe — a very real scenario that provides a good reason to take a deep dive into the topic of email security. Here are some more good reasons:

• Email is one of the top communication tools for businesses — and one of the most vulnerable.
• Sophisticated email phishing attacks are one of the top cybersecurity threats.
• Phishing attacks account for more than 80% of reported security incidents and lead to estimated losses of $17,700 every minute!
• Malicious hackers even use events like the COVID-19 pandemic to run email scams; for example, pretending to be from the World Health Organization or the CDC and trying to get you to click on a bogus link.

Such black-hat campaigns continue to dog businesses because email is such a treasure trove of valuable information. Of course, the scope of email security goes well beyond phishing and its variations. Strong email security also demands protection against spam, viruses, ransomware, mail breaches involving theft of passwords, attachments and sensitive information and more.

Read on for some tips and strategies for keeping your email safe.

Email Security — Top Tips & Strategies

1. Beware of sophisticated email phishing schemes

We’re not done warning you about phishing yet; not even close. Email threats have been around for decades, but the threats continue to evolve and become more sophisticated. The different types of phishing attacks include:

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• • Spear phishing: targeting specific individuals rather than sending emails to thousands
  • Vishing: targeting people using similar strategies but by phone instead of email
  • (Read more...)