The Email: Staying Safe Against Cyber Criminal’s Most Powerful Tool

Imagine this: You’re sitting in your office, sipping your morning coffee, going through your emails. Everything seems routine until you stumble upon an alarming message from your bank.

You click the link and log in to your bank... but something feels wrong.  

You go back to your email and look again. Your heart skips a beat as you realize it’s not from your bank at all… it’s a cleverly disguised phishing scam. This is where criminals pretend to be someone else. They’ve sent you to a fake bank login page and you’ve just handed over your banking login details without even realizing it…

Now your business account has been compromised, and the criminals are already logging into your real bank account. This scenario might sound like the plot of a dramatic novel, but unfortunately, it’s a reality many businesses face every day.

With all the modern communication tools we have, most businesses are still overly reliant on email. This 50-year-old tool refuses to go away. Criminals aren’t just sending you fake emails, they are also trying to break into your inbox.

If you think about it, having access to someone’s email gives you a huge amount of power. You can reset their passwords… see their purchase history and travel plans… and even pretend to be them while emailing other people.

This is why criminals are obsessed with your email. 90% of cyber security attacks on businesses like yours start in your inbox.

So how do you prevent one of these nightmare scenarios?

Email is the one communication tool every business uses… which makes it the primary method for cyber attacks. The most common threats are phishing, and attachments that attempt to load malware onto your computer.

Phishing scams especially have become increasingly sophisticated. Cyber criminals are using smarter tactics than ever to encourage you to give away sensitive information or click on malicious links. The consequences of a successful email breach can be devastating for a business of any size.

Here are just a few potential outcomes:

Effective small security requires constant vigilance. Use robust monitoring tools and processes to continuously monitor email traffic, detect anomalies and suspicious activities, and respond promptly to potential security incidents.

What should you monitor though?

Email logs, server activity, and user behavior will help identify signs of unauthorized access, unusual patterns, or potential security breaches. Consider using security information and event management (SIEM) solutions to aggregate and analyze data from multiple sources and detect security threats in real-time.

Develop a comprehensive incident response plan to guide your business’s response to email security incidents. Define roles and responsibilities, establish how best to communicate when you can’t trust email, and outline step-by-step procedures for investigating and mitigating security breaches.

You can also conduct regular exercises and simulations to test the effectiveness of your incident response plan and ensure that your team is prepared to respond quickly and effectively if there is a problem. Regularly assess and audit your email security controls to identify vulnerabilities and areas for improvement.