Evaluating Your Email Gateway Security

Cyber threats are a growing concern to enterprises across the board. The level of threat pose by email, however, is often far greater than what’s perceived by most. In fact, almost 95 percent of malware comes through email. 

Email seems like such a benign, useful tool. But beneath its utility lies a darker reality—email is arguably the best avenue for cyber criminals to do their work. Phishing is to this day the main reason email can be so dangerous. Highly targeted social manipulation schemes where someone extracts critical information, or tricks a user into visiting a link, can easily go unnoticed. It only takes one slipping through the cracks to potentially exploit a vulnerability. 

Email gateway security provides a solution to this. By scanning email traffic, it’s possible to weed out much of the harmful incoming threats before they’re able to do damage. These are some things to consider when evaluating your email gateway security.

Automatically Filter What’s Obviously Bad

As already mentioned, phishing remains one of the biggest risks to networks due to the fact the end user can activate it unknowingly. With email gateway security, organizations can rest a little bit easier about the chances of an accidental email Armageddon. 

Artificial intelligence-enabled scanning tools can help identify suspicious emails and automatically remove them from inboxes. There are some things that can only do harm. Simply having those emails filtered out of incoming traffic instantly lowers the chances of a cyber breach through email. 

Email Alone Might Not Be Enough 

While email is clearly the big concern when it comes to creating a secure gateway, it’s not the only platform to consider. Messaging services can also be vulnerable to the work of sophisticated phishing attacks. Messaging protection is something that can be a valuable service to enterprises that heavily integrate these tools into standard workflows. 

Think about it—phishing scams are often successful because the victim is just going along their business like nothing is wrong. They have no reason to assume there’s anything dangerous hiding just beneath the surface. Adding this layer of protection can help businesses stay ahead of this kind of threat. 

Keep Everything Encrypted

There are all kinds of bad actors out there that might want to gain access to your sensitive information. Without encryption, you’re leaving yourself and your organization open to attack. It’s a good idea to encrypt all organizational communications. Email, however, is one form that absolutely must be encrypted. 

Many of your business’s most important documents will travel via email. Without end-to-end encryption, sophisticated criminals can potentially gain access to this data. Secure email gateways can provide a solid encryption protocol for enterprises. 

Analytics to Show History and Trends

You’re only going to know how well a secure email gateway is working if you have the tools to evaluate it. This is something that should be provided by the organization managing your email gateway. If you’re doing this internally, you’ll want to utilize some kind of analytics and reporting tools in order to keep track of threats. 

Working with an outside agency can be beneficial here because they’ll have purpose-built tools designed specifically for this function. Having top-of-the line products endorsed by industry experts means you’ll be much more likely to extract value.

Triage When Something Goes Wrong

Time is against you in the event of a cyber breach. It’s often very difficult to detect when something is wrong, especially if you’re not scanning your networks on a consistent basis. This can be mitigated, however, with email gateway security. 

Whether you’re working with an external service, or just in-house, your email gateway should be able to begin the triage process on its own if something is amiss. Automating initial responses can help get all hands on deck faster, which can lead to isolating the threat before it spreads everywhere. 

Email gateway security can be a massive asset to enterprises today. Keeping email communications free of threats vastly lowers the chances of your organization having to deal with serious data loss.