How to Choose the Right Email Security Solutions for Your Organization

Email is a critical communications channel for your organization, and cybercriminals exploit it to send malware, phishing attacks, and BEC messages. Your best defense against these threats is an effective security solution with a layered approach and real-time protection.

A good solution is easy to set up, user-friendly, and has flexible pricing options. It’s also important to consider a solution that provides the highest level of security.

Encryption

Encryption ensures email messages remain private, and it protects against attacks such as man-in-the-middle attacks by preventing cyber criminals from reading an organization’s message content. Email service providers use encryption to secure emails in transit, and it is also implemented by many browsers as the lock symbol you see on websites.

Consider your organization’s specific security requirements: size, industry, regulatory compliance obligations, and other factors that can necessitate specialized solutions. For instance, healthcare firms may prioritize HIPAA compliance, while banks have stringent rules that must be followed.

Detection capabilities are another crucial aspect to consider. While all email security solutions will offer malware detection, look for one that combines signature-based detection with sandboxing to allow novel malware variants to be detected based on their behavior.

Finally, consider the ease of use. IT teams are already stretched thin, and the last thing they need is to spend extra time investigating incidents or analyzing data. Look for a solution that provides centralized visibility and reporting to streamline these activities.

Digital Signatures

A digital signature adds an extra layer of protection to email messages. It verifies the sender’s identity, ensuring the message is authentic and has not been tampered with. It works similarly to a physical signature on official documents.

This is an essential feature in any solution, particularly if your organization has sensitive data or regulatory compliance requirements that require you to keep email communications for a while. It helps mitigate the risk of exposing sensitive information by unauthorized users and ensures you have access to important emails in case of any issues.

Look for solutions to verify the signer’s identity through Outlook’s digital ID, also known as a signing certificate. A reliable security solution will be able to validate the signature without intercepting any emails or modifying their content. It will also enable you to import and export your signed emails easily.

Two-Factor Authentication

Email is a critical communication tool that can increase productivity and efficiency. Still, it can also be a source of disruption and frustration when it’s flooded with spam, phishing, or malware. These messages can disrupt operations and erode employee morale, which is why investing in an email security solution that improves email continuity, eliminates outages, and protects the confidentiality of email communications is essential.

While all email security solutions offer essential functions that prevent malware, phishing attacks, and spam, look for advanced features that are more effective at protecting against more sophisticated cyberattacks. For example, consider an email security solution that includes greylisting, heuristics, sandboxing, and AI or machine learning capabilities. These techniques can improve detection rates and protect against the latest email threats. Assessing an organization’s unique security requirements is the first step to finding the right email security solution. This will help ensure the solution meets specialized needs, including regulatory compliance and industry requirements while balancing budget constraints and cybersecurity talent gaps.

Anti-Spam

Emails are the primary attack vector for cybercriminals and must be protected. An effective email security solution includes anti-spam, which scours the content of emails and attachments for malicious patterns. It also enables IT teams to enforce email content guidelines to comply with regulatory requirements and prevent data breaches.

A robust email security solution also identifies potential vulnerabilities in emails and their attachments, preventing employees from clicking on phishing links or opening suspicious files. This feature helps reduce the risk of ransomware attacks that threaten to hold an organization’s files hostage until a monetary amount is paid.

Choosing the right email security solutions for your business requires careful consideration of your company’s security needs and IT infrastructure. Make a checklist of the features you need, and then compare your list to the capabilities of each solution. Evaluate each product based on its protection, ease of use, and price before creating a shortlist.

Data Loss Prevention

In addition to the standard protections against spam, malware, and phishing emails, email security solutions should offer several other features that improve protection against more sophisticated threats. These additional capabilities include a secure email gateway (SEG), data loss prevention (DLP), DMARC services, and phishing awareness training.

SEGs work by scanning all outbound messages to identify any that are intended for someone outside the organization. For example, the software can flag or send those messages to a system administrator. This can prevent sensitive information from being sent to competitors or customers.

A good email security solution should be fast and continuously updated to protect against new attacks and variants of existing threats. It should also be easy to implement and use, even for remote workers. It should be able to scale up or down to accommodate the size of a company as it grows or shrinks.

Reporting

Email security solutions must be able to report on and analyze threats, providing alerts for suspicious activities like data breaches. These tools can also help identify weaknesses in an organization’s defenses. This helps prevent cybercriminals from exploiting vulnerabilities by sending malicious emails that can go undetected.

Some advanced solutions offer end-to-end encryption, which scrambles email content on the sender’s device and only decrypts it once it reaches the recipient’s inbox. This protects sensitive information from unauthorized access. Some solutions can also scan for weak grammar or spelling, a typical red flag in phishing attacks.

Different organizations have unique requirements based on size, industry, and regulatory compliance. These factors can help decision-makers determine the ideal email security solution for their business. This allows them to satisfy compliance requirements and react quickly to legal inquiries while ensuring essential historical communications remain available.