Email remains the primary way of communication for most businesses. The Email and Document Management Usage Benchmark report revealed that 91% of surveyed employees used email for client communication, while only 5% preferred Slack.
And because email remains the preferred medium, most hackers target the mailboxes.
There's been an 81% increase in phishing attacks on organizations since March 2020. And this is likely to continue in the near future.
When the stakes are high, you cannot help but secure the mailboxes being used in your business. And that's where the AC360 Shield Email Protection comes in. This article delivers some advanced cybersecurity measures to help protect your email accounts.
How Emails are Targeted and Compromised
The email threat landscape has evolved, becoming more sophisticated and targeted. This poses significant risks to small and mid-size businesses that employ outdated prevention measures.
Cybercriminals employ various tactics to compromise email accounts to gain unauthorized access, steal sensitive information, and carry out fraudulent activities. Learning how emails are targeted in 2024 will help protect your accounts better.
Some of the common tactics used are:
· Phishing attacks
Phishing attacks remain the holy grail of hackers who compromise accounts and steal information. It's a technique where attackers use deceptive emails to trick recipients into divulging sensitive information or clicking on malicious links. These emails often mimic trusted entities, such as banks or colleagues.
Phishing attacks aren't only limited to businesses. Almost 30% of adults have reported encountering phishing-related attacks.
· Business Email Compromise (BEC)
BEC attacks involve impersonating executives or high-ranking officials within an organization to manipulate employees into making financial transactions or revealing confidential information.
The emails are typically targeted at employees who willingly hand over the details, thinking they're interacting with their respective bosses.
· Credential stuffing
In credential-stuffing attacks, cybercriminals use stolen username-password combinations from previous data breaches to gain unauthorized access to email accounts. In essence, they exploit individuals who reuse passwords across multiple platforms.
· Malware and Ransomware distribution
Spam emails often contain links or attachments. And more often than not, it's bait.
Malicious attachments or links in emails can deliver malware or ransomware to compromise email accounts. Once opened, these attachments can infect systems, encrypt data, and demand ransom payments for recovery.
· Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks
In MitM attacks, hackers intercept and alter communication between two parties. This can lead to the compromise of email content, login credentials, or the insertion of malicious content. These are highly specialized attacks that require expertise. Even cybersecurity and risk mitigation companies, like Fox-IT, fall victim to MitM attacks.
Advanced Cybersecurity Protection with AC360 Shield
In navigating the complex email threat landscape, small and mid-size businesses must adopt a proactive and comprehensive approach to email security.
AC360 Shied was designed with those needs in mind. Here are some of the advanced cybersecurity measures in place:
· Phishing imposter detection and blocking
The software employs advanced phishing imposter detection algorithms that scrutinize every incoming email for telltale signs of phishing attempts. It identifies imposter emails that mimic trusted entities and ensures they are flagged or blocked, safeguarding your users from victimizing these cunning attacks. Every email that you receive will contain a label if the message is deemed dangerous or unethical.
· Spam & malware protection
AC360 Shield incorporates robust spam and malware protection mechanisms that filter out unwanted and potentially dangerous emails. Leveraging real-time threat intelligence and heuristics ensures that your organization's mailboxes remain free from spam.
Messages that are deemed dangerous are automatically moved to the spam folder.
· Email encryption
With the increasing emphasis on data privacy, securing sensitive information in transit is non-negotiable. And this is a sure way of protection against advanced attacks like MitM.
The email encryption feature encrypts the content of emails, ensuring that even if intercepted, the information remains confidential. This extra layer of security is crucial for businesses handling sensitive data, providing peace of mind knowing that communication is shielded from prying eyes.
· Content control
Maintaining control over the types of content exchanged via email is crucial for compliance and security. The content control feature empowers administrators with granular control over email content. Define policies to block or flag emails containing specific keywords, attachments, or types of content. This ensures that your organization can enforce compliance and prevent transmitting sensitive or inappropriate information.
· Security awareness training
It's a well-known fact that human errors cause most data breaches. So, even the best security mechanism can potentially fail if there's a manual error.
Therefore, AC360 goes beyond technical measures by offering employee awareness training. These engaging and informative educational materials educate users on recognizing and avoiding common threats like phishing. By fostering a cybersecurity-conscious culture, businesses can significantly reduce the likelihood of human error leading to security breaches.
Secure Your Inbox Now!
By combining the latest cybersecurity tactics with state-of-the-art cloud infrastructure, AC360 delivers a superior email solution to businesses. Contact us today to learn more.
