Mitigating Email Threats: A Guide To Protecting Your Email From Cyber Attacks

The inception of generative AI solutions has led to an influx of email marketers seeking to produce stunning marketing emails swiftly. However, email as a popular tool of communication and collaboration in businesses has also resulted in an increase in email-related cyber threats.

Recent studies suggest that over 82 per cent of Indian organisations suffered from at least one successful email attack last year. Despite email security systems being in place, traditional email security solutions are inadequate in protecting against increasingly sophisticated attacks, including business email compromise (BEC), social engineering, and fraud. While comprehensive email gateway defences provide a sturdy foundation, organisations must adopt a multi-faceted email security strategy to better protect their businesses, data and people from these reputation-deteriorating attacks.

Understanding Different Types Of Email Threats

The first step towards developing an effective email security plan is to thoroughly understand the potential threats a business may face thoroughly. There are 13 different types of email threats which can be broadly classified into five categories: spam, malware, data exfiltration, phishing and impersonation.

• Spam are unsolicited messages that clutter inboxes and account for 53 per cent of the world's email traffic.
• Malware is a more insidious threat, with 94 per cent of malware delivered via email. It is designed to cause damage, disrupt operations, exfiltrate data or gain access to a remote system. 
• Data exfiltration is data theft from a remote system without the owner's consent.
• Phishing constitutes 91 per cent of all cyberattacks and is a deceptive tactic cybercriminals use to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information.
• Impersonation is often used in conjunction with phishing, where the malicious actor pretends to be a person, organisation, or service.

Hackers frequently use these combinations of different techniques to carry out email attacks, resulting in 13 types of email threats. These include spam, malware, data exfiltration, URL phishing, scamming, spear phishing, domain impersonation, brand impersonation, extortion, business email compromise, conversation hijacking, lateral phishing, and account takeover.

In order to defend against these threats, businesses need a multi-layered protection strategy that combines email gateway defences with AI and API-based inbox defence that can help reduce susceptibility to attacks and provide comprehensive email protection against even the most complex and targeted threats.

Limitations Of Traditional Email Security Solutions

Email gateway acts as a security perimeter that filters inbound and outbound emails for malicious content, using technologies like reputation filters to detect low-reputation IPs. It evaluates email content for signs of malicious intent, scans for viruses and malware, authenticates the sender and analyses URLs to block phishing and malware distribution sites. With advanced threat protection technologies like sandboxing, email gateways detect and block zero-day attacks and ransomware.

However, while email gateways are highly effective at detecting and blocking most malicious messages, they do have their share of shortcomings. They rely heavily on filters, rules, and policies, which means they may be unable to protect against highly targeted email attacks that use social engineering tactics like spear phishing and business email compromise. On average, 14 malicious emails bypass traditional email gateways each year, highlighting the need for additional protection- this is where API-based inbox defence comes into play.

Strengthening Your Email Security Posture With API-Based Protection

While traditional email gateway security serves as a foundation for email protection, it has limitations when detecting and blocking targeted attacks. To address this gap, API-based inbox defence has emerged as a powerful solution. API-based inbox defence utilises Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to integrate with existing email infrastructure and analyse the context and intent of emails in real time. This approach to email security relies on machine learning to identify patterns of behaviour, analyse email traffic to detect anomalies, and block attacks before they can reach users' inboxes.

In addition to real-time threat detection, API-based inbox defence allows organisations to implement policies to prevent specific email attacks, such as spear phishing or business email compromise. Furthermore, these policies can be customised to meet the unique needs of the organisation and can be adjusted over time as the threat landscape changes, thus, providing a comprehensive defence against imminent targeted attacks.

Educating Users On Latest Threats

In order to effectively protect businesses from email attacks, a combination of advanced technology and user education is necessary. By combining email gateway defences, which can identify and block spam and malware, with API-based inbox defence, which can detect and prevent phishing attacks and impersonation attempts, organisations can detect and block suspicious emails before they reach their intended recipients. This multi-layered approach helps provide comprehensive protection against email attacks and safeguard sensitive information.

However, relying on technology alone is not sufficient. Educating users and employees on the latest threats is crucial to establish a strong email security strategy. Even the most secure email gateway can be bypassed by sophisticated phishing attacks that use social-engineering tactics. Moreover, research indicates that human error accounts for 95 per cent of security breaches, underscoring the importance of providing employee security awareness training. By engaging employees in continuous simulation and training exercises, they can learn to recognise and report malicious content, becoming an additional layer of defence in the fight against email attacks.

Conclusion

An adequate email security is critical to safeguarding your organisation against a diverse array of cyber threats. As email attacks become more complex and sophisticated, traditional email security solutions are no longer sufficient. A multi-layered approach, comprising traditional email gateway security and API-based inbox defence, is necessary to defend your organisation against the full range of email threats.

From spam and malware to highly targeted spear phishing and business email compromise attacks, a comprehensive email security strategy is essential for protecting your business, data and personnel. By comprehending the current threat landscape and implementing robust email security measures, you can fortify your organisation against highly targeted email attacks and remain ahead of the ever-evolving threat landscape.

Parag Khurana

Guest Author The author is Country Manager, Barracuda Networks