Five Email Security Best Practices to Protect Yourself from Hackers
Email has become indispensable to modern workplace communication, enabling us to exchange information quickly and efficiently. It’s how teams collaborate, managers give updates and clients reach out. There’s no longer any need to pick up the phone to call someone or to mail a document physically!
However, because of its central role in professional life, our email systems have become a prime target for cybercriminals. In recent years, the FBI has noted that phishing attacks are the number one type of internet crime our society faces, with some research identifying that 91% of cyberattacks start with an unsuspecting victim receiving a phishing email.
A single compromised email can lead to severe security breaches, leading to data loss, financial loss, and disruptions to daily workflow. With such high stakes, everyone needs to take action to safeguard their personal and company data! Below, we’ll cover the top five security practices you should follow to keep your communication secure at work.
- Use Separate Email Accounts for Work and Personal Communications
Most people use a single email account for all their needs. It’s certainly convenient to receive all your messages in one place, whether it’s shopping deals, newsletters, correspondence from friends, or documents from a colleague.
But what if a cybercriminal manages to breach your account? There’s a high likelihood they could access all your stored information and use it for fraudulent activities, such as stealing your identity, making unauthorized purchases, or even accessing sensitive company data to commit corporate espionage. They could also send phishing emails to your contacts, further spreading the attack.
You can mitigate the risk from successfully social engineering attacks by creating at least two separate email accounts: a personal account to communicate with friends and family, and a professional email account solely for work-related tasks. Not only will this boost your security, but it will also increase your productivity!
- Set Strong Passwords for Every Account
Many email users overlook the importance of strong login credentials, often opting for simple choices that are easy to guess. You might be surprised to learn that weak passwords like “123456” are still alarmingly common.
To enhance your phishing attack prevention, create longer passwords or passphrases that include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. This is important for all the accounts you use, not just email—like your social media profiles, banking apps, shopping websites, and cloud storage services.
Make sure each account has a unique password to safeguard all your sensitive information and reduce the risk of widespread breaches. A password manager can help you with generating strong passwords and storing them safely!
Remember these additional guidelines for creating a strong email password:
- Avoid using predictable sequences of numbers or letters, such as “1234” or “abcd,” as they are easy for hackers to guess.
- Steer clear of including personal details like your birthdate, since these are often readily available to cybercriminals.
- A strong password should be at least eight characters long and include a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols.
- Consider using random words or phrases that don’t have personal significance, as they’re much harder to guess or crack.
To create an extra layer of security, enable multifactor authentication (MFA) as a preventative measure in case someone gets ahold of your password. Whenever a user attempts to login to your account, the system will request another method to verify your identity, like a fingerprint scan or a temporary activation code sent to your mobile phone.
- Verify An Email’s Sender and Content
Before clicking any link in an email, it’s crucial to assess its authenticity. While some links may be safe, others could lead to malicious websites or infect your device with malware. Providing your staff with comprehensive cybersecurity awareness training can make them pros at phishing scams detection and spotting the common red flags. For example, a leading insurance provider was able to minimize their cybersecurity risk with our staff IT training.
Here are some basics to get you started:
- Check the sender’s email address: Does it look suspicious, with an unusual combination of numbers or letters like “@amazon6753.com”? Is the company name misspelled? Cybercriminals often impersonate reputable companies like Amazon, Facebook, or Bank of America, or in the case of business email compromise (BEC) attacks, your own company!
- Take a few deep breaths: To catch you off guard, they may send an urgent-seeming message, prompting you to click a link or provide personal information to solve an issue with your account. This link could either install malware on your device or direct you to a fraudulent site. Remember, legitimate companies will never ask for sensitive details via email!
- Contact the company directly: If you receive such messages, reach out to the company through official channels to ask about their request. Only use a trusted website or phone number—never use the contact information in the email!
- Monitor Account Activity and Access
Regularly checking and reviewing the actions and events associated with your account is key to maintaining your security online.
You can usually find this information in the account logs located in your platform’s security or account settings. You’ll want to check login attempts, transactions, which devices were used, and any changes made to settings or personal information. Look for unusual devices or IP addresses that have accessed your account—these could be indicators that unauthorized users have gained access.
It’s also important to review the permissions you’ve granted to third-party applications. Revoke access rights immediately if you notice anything out of the ordinary—such as apps you don’t recognize or permissions that seem excessive.
If you suspect your account has been compromised, sign out of all sessions and change your password. Staying vigilant about these details lets you catch unusual behavior early, take swift action, and minimize the risk of identity theft or data loss
5.Implement proactive cybersecurity measures
With cyber threats becoming more sophisticated, it’s essential to implement robust security measures to protect your organization from harm.
Secure business email solutions often offer the option of email encryption to keep your message’s content private as it travels through the internet. If an unauthorized user gains access to the transmission path and intercepts your message, they won’t be able to read your sensitive or confidential information.
You should also regularly update your anti-malware and anti-phishing software, firewalls, and email security tools to ensure they leverage the most relevant features to filter out potential email scams, block malicious attachments, and address any newly discovered security vulnerabilities. Regular updates also help you patch an outdated system, preventing hackers from exploiting any weaknesses in your defense to breach your infrastructure.
Strengthen your email security with designDATA
When it comes to cybersecurity, email often doesn’t get the attention it deserves, but it’s a critical area that requires vigilant protection. Securing your email accounts from potential threats might seem like a complex task, but with the right expertise and support, it can be effortless and straightforward.
When you partner with designDATA for our managed IT services, our experts will integrate robust IT solutions and strategic practices to protect your email and entire IT infrastructure. We’re here to help with managed email security that empowers you to do your best work, helping you spend less time worrying about threats and instead focus more on your mission-critical projects.
Ready to secure your email and prevent phishing attacks? Contact designDATA today to discuss how we protect, manage and optimize your systems for greater safety and efficiency.
