Email Security Tips for a Corporate Environment In addition to sophisticated hardware & software, it is important to take measures to avoid falling prey to hacking, cyber security issues or data leak

Let's go almost 2 decades back. How did business take place- face to face meeting, written documents or maybe telephonic calls? The scenario changed once emails found their way out and things were never the same again. From initiating a conversation with a prospective client to closing the deal and discussing payment, e-mail has been the way out.

With nearly 4 billion email accounts, It is estimated that Each Day, the average office worker receives 121 emails and sends out 40. Eighty-six per cent of professionals name email as their favourite mode of communication. But with convenience comes responsibility. Email security is an area that all businesses need to address. It is unimaginable to calculate the amount of data we share over email and moreover, equally risky especially when unethical hacking and the cyber breach has become a regular practice.

Percentage of email that is considered spam is 49.7. and Percentage of emails that have a malicious attachment is 2.3. The advanced solutions like firewalls and antivirus software are no longer enough. In addition to sophisticated hardware & software, it is important to take measures to avoid falling prey to hacking, cyber security issues or data leak. There are certain practices which are small and easy to implement but help negate the problem to a great extent.

Looking at the Broader Perspective

Let us understand one thing, that just by having a password and making sure that internal contacts are not affected, we are only looking at a narrow perspective. There is a lot more that is at stake if proper security is not maintained.

Not using emails is not the way out. What is important is ensuring that the emails sent to colleagues, customers, vendors, etc are as secure as possible. One should always be sure of what information he/she is sharing and with whom. One should take care of not including any suspicious email id to our mailing list to ensure that the information does not get into wrong hands. Avoid sending information of utmost confidentiality through emails and even if you do, make sure that it is thoroughly encrypted.

Even to access your own account, enable Two-step authentication so that no unauthorised person has access to your account. People avoid login into their email accounts on cyber cafes or public internet jut to ensure that no one records and sees the password.

Avoid falling prey to Malware

It has been found that almost 2-4per cent of emails contain a virus which means that an unimaginable number of emails with viruses are circulated every day. A particular nasty variation of malware circulated via email is ransomware, which encrypts all files on the system and demands a ransom to unlock the data. Many businesses in recent times have been affected by this and have faced huge loses both in terms of money and data. ESP (Eliminate Spam at Protocol) Technology to stop spam is one of the efficient ways to stop before even before its sent

It is very important to understand and learn to differentiate as to which of these emails can have a virus or malware that can cause harm to the system. To expand security against email dangers, organizations need to execute a multi filtering arrangement that will check email connections with various antivirus engines. By utilizing the intensity of the distinctive algorithms of each engine, identification rates have expanded, giving robust security against such malware

Do Not Share Your Password With Anyone

The biggest mistake one makes is by sharing their email id password with someone. It might be the need of the hour but it is an equally risky thing to do. One can never gauge how the other person can misuse it and access or tamper confidential and personal information.

In the worst case scenario, if one has to share, then the password should be changed immediately without even delaying it for a minute. In fact, it is advisable to reset your password every once In a while to avoid any issue of email hacking. This not only ensures security but it is a good practice, in the long run, to avoid any losses to your corporate information, data and finances.

Email Security will remain an issue. What needs to be understood is that these small practices can help to minimise risks to a large extent and help avoid any kind of losses to a business. In fact, several innovative and secure solutions have been designed to address such issues.