Remote working is quite convenient both for employees and businesses. The major benefits are: employees can work from the comfort of their homes and avoid the risk of being infected by the deadly COVID-19 while businesses get to reduce operating costs while ensuring improved productivity. However, employees and in general, enterprises also have to ensure that they maintain complete security over all types of communication including emails.
When talking about email security solutions, there are measures that both companies and employees can opt for. However, it is employees that often remain at maximum risk. Here’s why it is Important to upgrade your email security when working from home.
- Email Being the Most Common Target for Cyber Criminals
The first thing that employees get as soon as they join a company is their official email address. Their email ID is one of the prominent aspects of accessing the company information and communicating on a day-today basis. Every official communication to and/or from the company uses email as a medium. Therefore, when employees work remotely and they use their official emails, they are at a risk of being attacked by cyber-criminals through various possible means. Such criminals often use phishing, baits, social engineering and many other types of attacks to exploit cracks in the security system that can also be caused by human error. - An Attack on Email Can Affect the Entire Organisation
A thin crack in the security of an email can let slip a deadly malware or spyware into the entire communication network which can wreak havoc in the entire organisation. And the situation worsens when the organisation is hit by a ransomware. Even the experienced employees and experts fall victim to such tactics. Cyber-criminals hold important information of a company to themselves and use it to milk the organisation for personal benefits. They may also public the information or sell it to the highest bidder in the case of a personal vendetta. - Protect Sensitive Information
There are many aspects to a company’s confidential information and some of it may also include highly sensitive information that can be used against the organisation or for criminal purposes. Cyber-criminals can also target the day-to-day communication and can change the messages at their will that can create miscommunication and compel them to release and/or hide relevant information. Therefore, such forgery may also result into identity theft that can ultimately cause breach of sensitive information. Both employees and organisations have to be mindful that cyber-criminals only need one small loophole in the security and they can jeopardise the entire flow of work and therefore, emails must be protected at every possible terminal that they’re being accessed from. - Standard Security Measures Wouldn’t be Able to Help
Although email service providers (platforms) are equipped with security measures, cyber-criminals are well-aware of those measures and they can easily bypass them. However, there is another aspect to it; standard email defences can only stop threats that are known to them. Many a times, the email system also prompts users to decide whether the received messages are secure or not. Advanced threat detection systems use AI databases, real-time analysis and machine learning for better protection. This is why it has become important for users to use advanced security measures that can identify a wide range of threats and anomalies and try and stop them from entering the system. - Cyber-Criminals are Also Using Advanced Methods
The technological advancement in field of the online security systems can also empower cyber-criminals and hackers as they readily use more and more sophisticated methods to breach firewalls. Methods such as AI Fuzzing (AIF), Machine Learning Poisoning (MLP) and more can enable hackers to automate attacks. Such advanced techniques along with a number of cloud vulnerabilities that cyber-criminals can exploit, can severely damage an organisation’s workflow, image and credibility in the industry. All of these threats should be bothersome enough to install advanced email security measures. They can also opt for the services of email security service providers that offer potent email and overall online security.
Why empower ICT
empower ICT is one of the few service providers that offer a wide range of managed comprehensive services such as Telco, IT, Cloud, IT security, etc. We take care of the security of your online interactions such as inbound and outbound emails, chat, and other types of communications so that your year of hard work stays safe. We employ next-gen firewalls, LAN audits and advanced email security measures to ensure maximum safety of your data.
Conclusion:
A robust email security system that works in coordination with the overall work flow and processes can help both the organisation and employees create a safe working environment. While on one hand, remote working is quite comfortable for employees, on the other, they also need to be quite careful as they need proper training so they do not fall for online scams.