Small businesses are relying more and more on technology to communicate, particularly email. Email is also one of the most common ways hackers will try, and succeed, to infect the network of an SME. That’s one of many reasons that securing your business email is of paramount importance. It’s the very backbone of the way your business communicates and operates.
Investing in securing your email pays dividends in terms of enhanced security.
How is email vulnerable?
A common way hackers like to gain access to business networks is through malware. One of the simplest and most efficient ways for them to distribute malware is via email – the malware generally is attached as a link or an attachment for download. Once clicked on, it’ll infect the machine in seconds, before infecting the entirety of the network.
Hackers are becoming more sophisticated. Most people are savvy enough to spot an obvious hack-mail and will know to steer clear of it. As such, hackers are now using emails cleverly designed to look innocent. For example, they purport to be from an aggrieved customer or supplier, outlying a valid sounding complaint about payment. They provide an attachment they say is a scan of an invoice and before you know it you’ve clicked on it. It’s that quick.
What can you do?
One thing you can do to quickly increase the overall security of your email is to switch it to the cloud. That means your emails aren’t stored anywhere on your physical network. Cloud providers pay close attention to suspicious emails so you’ll have a much better chance of filtering out any undesired communication before it even hits your inbox.
Securing your email can be as simple as better educating yourself and any staff on the realities of email security breaches and how to avoid them. That can include understanding the tell-tale signs that an email is not genuine, keeping abreast of news and developments in email security, and consulting with professional security experts. Even writing “Don’t click unverified links” on a post-it and sticking it to a monitor can help.
Something else to consider will be investing in anti-virus that will actively scan your incoming and outgoing emails to filter for any viruses. If you do, make sure that you keep said anti-virus software as up to date as possible to make the most of developing virus definitions. Criminals are always turning to new strains of malware as older ones spread wider and become easier to spot.
Email is still one of the primary ways businesses communicate. The importance of email security cannot be underestimated. Think not only of your business, but of the potential to pass on malware to your customers’ email addresses.