In today’s ever changing technological landscape, cyber security is becoming exponentially paramount to a business’ success. Many companies who have suffered from security breaches had state of the art anti-virus software, a strong backup cloud system, and secure credentials for each machine in the office. However, none of these protection tools remain relevant without protecting the number one component of your office: your communication systems!
In the business world, you are mostly likely spending a significant portion of your day interacting with customers and faculty alike. Most times than not, if you are not using your phone or an instant messaging system, such as Skype for Business, you are using email. While email is a great tool for communication, it is also dangerous due to the potential threats from the internet. This doesn’t mean you should stop using email at all, but rather be aware of what is out there, as well as take the essential steps to ensure that your email is secure. Here are some tips to enhance your email security!
1: Do not rely on anti-virus software to protect you from everything.
Your anti-virus (AV) software will do its best to protect you from as many major threats as possible (as long you keep it updated). However, your AV software is not “bullet-proof,” meaning that there is still a risk for infection daily! Recognizing that your antivirus software can fail and educating your end users will provide awareness for threats in their emails.
2: Invest in anti-spam software.
The purpose of anti-spam software is to filter incoming emails. However, like anti-virus software, anti-spam will not protect you from every threat possible. This doesn’t mean that investing in anti-spam software is a waste of time. Rather, a strong anti-spam system will mitigate the potential for threats to come through your email servers.
Each email that is sent to someone within your email server will be scanned by this software and then will be either sent to the user or quarantined for review. Specific domains can be added to a list in the software, which will automatically send emails from that domain to a spam folder. Anti-spam may have its flaws at times, like anti-virus software, it is still an investment that will secure your data and save you money down the road!
3: Implement a strong security policy
Start implementing security policies early and enforce them daily. Some policies may include specific password criteria (specific characters, duration, length, etc.), limited number of devices synced with email account, and more. It is important to implement a security policy because this will be your first line of defense. A lack of defense will create a stronger potential for an attack, resulting in potential loss in data, productivity, and profit.
4: Educate and train your end users.
The ultimate data security is education for end users provided by a business’ IT support. Your end users will be less susceptible to email security attacks if they are well trained and educated. In addition, implementing an education program will allow your IT service provider to focus their time on resolving other pressing issues. Data security is a collective effort!
5: Update your devices and software.
The technology landscape is ever changing. As change occurs, new threats are created and new updates are implemented to combat these threats. Therefore, it is important that our security software is always running with the most up to date versions, as well as our operating systems on our devices. Updates occur regularly and are often announced in some capacity. You can always check for updates on the developer’s website or by checking your update settings on your device, regardless of operating system.