Tip of the Week: Keeping Your Business Email Secure

Every business should consider its security one of its top priorities, and with so much business now happening digitally, cybersecurity is a major part of that. Take, for instance, the heightened importance of email in the extended remote workforce. While email is a great business tool, it can also be an avenue that a cybercriminal uses to attack. So that you can better protect your business, we’re discussing some basic email security steps for this week’s tip.

How Can My Employees Protect My Business?

The thing about email-based security threats is that they could take advantage of any member of your organization to infiltrate it. This means that all your team members need to know the security best practices to keep their email secure and the company safer from threats.

Know the Warning Signs

Many of the threats likely to target business inboxes can potentially be avoided if your team simply knows to keep an eye out for a few indicating signs. Whether an email shows the hallmarks of a phishing attack, an unexpected attachment, or comes without any warning from someone you don’t know, caution is key for everyone in your organization.

Check the Details

Speaking of warning signs, some are very simple and can easily be missed if the recipient isn’t careful. For instance, if the email address of the supposed sender is misspelled, that’s a sure sign of an attack. Unexpected links or, as we said before, attachments can often deliver malware. Take all requests for information with a grain of salt, and make sure you confirm that the email was legitimate before sharing any data.

Use Automated Defenses

While your employees can be fooled, they’re only going to be fooled if a threat makes it into their inbox in the first place. Implementing automated security options can help cut down on the threats that make it this far, as well as reduce the amount of spam that your employees must deal with. Minimizing threats in this way helps your team’s security and productivity alike, as they can spend less time on threat management and more achieving their goals.

Encrypt Your Data

Or, as it would look after being encrypted: “LBgC1fMWrctCfdypy/Oxu16VMJwhMzkhtyQhMTYwIQ==”.

Encryption hides your data from view as it traverses the web, making it far less useful to any cybercriminal who sneaks a peek. Protecting your communications—including your email—with encryption is a great strategy, especially if you must share sensitive and private information.

For more assistance with securing your business, from email to everything else, reach out to Washington Works at 301-571-5040.