You've set up secure (encrypted) email sending on all your mail accounts and updated the anti spam & anti malware software on your work computers and smartphones. So all's well?
Sadly, no. There are still many ways that people can infiltrate your email and make life miserable.
If someone spoofs your mail account (sends out spam in your name), there's loss of business reputation. It's worse if they steal or guess your email password: you could also face privacy breaches, identity theft and blacklisting of the server that hosts your website and email. Ouch.
Spam getting into your mailbox isn't just a nuisance, it can also be dangerous.
Crises like the coronavirus epidemic stir cybercriminals and cranks into frantic activity. In a single week in April 2020, Gmail blocked >240 million COVID-19 spam emails and an additional >18 million COVID-19 phishing & malware emails.
What about Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption? Unless both recipient and sender use TLS, there are 'gaps' where incoming or outgoing mail is not protected by encryption. Thankfully, TLS is becoming the norm. Google reports that over 90% of email that goes in or out of Gmail is TLS encrypted in transit as of April 2020.
Mail servers decrypt mail before checking it and storing it in the mailbox. Your own computer stores emails unencrypted too. Anti spam and anti malware scanners can't do their job on an encrypted email; neither can you. So these are also possible weak points where hackers can spy on mail or alter it (eg insert malware).
What further steps can you take to protect confidential emails? How does SuttonNet take care of your mail on our own server? Read on.
If you search online for 'email security solutions', you'll find a stableful. Free or paid, for large corporations or individual users, for specific mail clients such as Office 365 or for wider use. They sport helpful names such as DMARC, BIMI, TLS-RPT, SPF...
In 2020 SuttonNet researched some well known mail security technologies & products. We plan to issue a summary for clients.
Snapshot: there is a huge range of opinions and counter-views about email security. It's almost as confusing for the experts as it is for you.
For almost every software option, we read authoritative-sounding web reviews which touted it as a must-have solution. We also found articles exposing serious downsides.
No mail security software does a perfect job. If it did, it would probably be outside the financial or administrative reach of small business.
Regardless of how much security software you install, you are still responsible for behaving in a cybersafe way. That's your foremost protection.
Read our summary when it's available, consider your needs and contact us.
What email protection does our server offer clients?