According to Proofpoint’s 2021 State of the Phish report, 74% of US companies experienced a successful phishing attack - alarming us how critical email threat protection is nowadays.
The report also acknowledges a 30% increase in phishing over the global average and a 14% increase over the last year. And yet, the organizations still do not prioritize email protection, even though they seem to agree that phishing attacks do exist and threaten their well-being.
They understand that the email threat grows, but do nothing, hoping it won’t come and get them. It is an interesting strategy, but we can’t judge people for their decisions.
All we can recommend is hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
Email Security Threats and Natural Disasters
When you opt to hide from security threats and save up the costs by looking for the unified threat management tool, you are essentially trying to protect yourself from the tropical storm with an umbrella. You need more protection.
Interestingly, cyberattacks are going second after extreme weather and climate action failure in the Global Economy Risks 2020 study.
The business sector needs to take an example from the Pacific Ocean residents, or instead areas surrounded by it, and their approach to tsunamis.
Natural disasters often hit that particular region of the world. Countries of that area have developed strict policies designed to minimize the risks and losses inflicted by the crippling catastrophes.
For example, vulnerable countries created a Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction to improve preparedness levels. In Indonesia, the government came up with contingency plans that focused on threats such as floods, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Early warning systems, youth education, new building techniques – they do it all to prepare themselves for the eventual attack.
Do You Act the Same When You Face Security Threats?
“People who had their identity stolen, people who had ransomware on their computers, people who got a phishing email or had their password stolen - they understand the problem because they experienced the emotional aspect of being hacked. Most people haven't got that [emotional aspect], until there is a problem...” - Rick Doten, Art of Email Security.
People who lived through one disaster know how destructive its force can be. Yet it’s not all doom and gloom, as people can create an environment where they will be safer.
Email security is too lopsided, as online criminals, more often referred to as ‘hackers’, constantly look for potential victims who have other things to care about. Online criminals take their time and plot their break-in, and their go-to method is often centered around email.
Sophisticated cyberattacks demand lots of effort from the directors of chaos. Sophisticated attacks become possible after extended research of both defensive technologies that fight off email security threats and after analysis of people who stand behind them.
Curiosity and Negligence Are Two Main Email Threat Enablers
It is now a very well-known fact that 91% of cyber attacks start with spear phishing emails, the leading email threat.
The email threat of the spear phish is designed to lull a targeted user into a false sense of security. Phishing is so effective because it preys on people not caring enough and caring too much simultaneously.
Hackers hunt for credentials, essentially keys to one of the doors into your business household. After stealing login information, hackers can start investigating and evaluating the inner state of things.
After evaluating the goods they came for, hackers can do whatever they want with them, whether we talk about leaking, editing, deleting, or any form of compromise possible.
Often companies spend half a year to realize they have a leak in their kitchen.
The average time to identify a breach is 191 days, and that’s not as long as it may appear.
Other Email Security Threats You Should Know About
As bad as phishing is, it’s not the only email security threat you should be aware of.
There are also man-in-the-middle attacks. Malicious third parties can hijack the intermediate server between you and your recipient and siphon the confidential communication.
Modifying such emails is another option for the attacker. They are not only doing it for spying.
After clicking on the “send” button, we can no longer guard our data, and that disability is one of the most evident security threats known to the business sector today.
Traditional emails are sent unencrypted, and there’s little we can do to revoke them effectively, and that mistake accounts for 64% of insider threat incidents.
Yet another email threat you have to be prepared for.
When Evil Men Plot, Good Men Should Plan
The protection of a company's email infrastructure is a tall task.
Apart from phishing and man-in-the-middle attacks, ransomware gets a lot of coverage in the media. This nasty cyberattack that encrypts the sensitive content of a targeted machine and demands a ransom for turning it back into a normal state.
Of course, hackers do not necessarily follow their promises, and continue to blackmail people that paid even more.
Coming up with a unified threat management tool, or in other words, a way to cut off all email security threats at once, is a pipe dream. One solution can not keep every worker of your company away from all the dangers, for the same reason one person can not effectively do multiple jobs in one company.
Lack of cyber education and ignorance about security threats from your employees can jeopardize an entire network, and therefore your company.
What do companies have to do to fend off major email threats and keep their workforce out of the harm’s way?
Email Threat Protection with StealthMail
StealthMail fends off security threats with a multitude of measures that complement each other especially well.
First off, StealthMail subjects the content of your emails to advanced encryption. In other words, it scrambles the original meaning of the business email into a cipher text, so nobody could find out what information was there in the first place.
This helps cut off the risks of criminals reading confidential information and help the company achieve legal compliance under a multitude of acts.
StealthMail gives you complete control over the encryption process, key management, and data storing, as only you should have access to that information, not data centers or other 3rd party holders.
StealthMail only uses regular email for passing a Stealth Link that is void of any confidential data.
The recipients must authorize into the system and verify their identity to get access to the protected email. The two-factor authentication and digital signatures mitigate phishing attempts, BEC scams, and identity theft risks, giving employees the ability to concentrate on their primary goals.
As a pleasant bonus, StealthMail gives people the power to fix eventual mistakes with a “Revoke” feature that can return the message to you without a false recipient even finding out anything about it.
StealthMail doesn’t require a complicated integration and is available in the form of the Microsoft Outlook add-in. StealthMail is easy to use and introduce to your business partners, as there’s no additional fees for expanding your circle of communication. To dismiss email security threats with email protection service, book a free consultation about the solution right now at StealthMail.com.
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