How to ensure secure email communication for business?
Every business is increasingly relying on e-mail. The most popular and reliable means of communication is email. Unfortunately, because of a few mistakes, your messages may not be as personal and secure as you think.
In today’s digital world, email security is important when it comes to easy access to technology in every sector. Historically it has been the most popular means of communication that we use to share personal and confidential information. Hopefully, increasing your business email security is not too difficult if you plan ahead. There are many important things you can do to stay safe if your IT team adheres to them.
In particular, the number of cyber-attacks is almost doubling every year. According to researchers, the average loss per attack is more than $188,000. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, cyber-attacks are having a huge impact on the U.S. economy each year, with losses amounting to more than $100 billion.
The hope is that your business e-mail communication can increase security and privacy in a number of ways. In today’s article, we will discuss in detail how to increase the security and privacy of business e-mail.
Securing email communication for business
E-mail is important for a business because most of the confidential information including the customer’s account number and private discussion are exchanged via e-mail.
But now is the time to think about whether the e-mail is really secure. Establishing secure communication systems is essential for a business.
Let’s talk about some ways to make email more secure in business communication.
1. Encrypt e-mail and Keep Backup
If you send e-mail without encrypting your email channel, it’s easy for hackers to target you. So using encryption software in your e-mail is the first condition to ensure security. If you use Google Workspace or Office 365, you will get encryption security with their services. You can still take Office 365 Consulting to stay safe for the best use.
Similarly, it is important to have a backup of your email in the cloud and you also need to learn how to restore it. This is an important way to keep yourself safe from any attack and not to lose important data or files.
2. implement cybersecurity plan
Then you need to create a cybersecurity plan to keep your business communication secure and work to implement it. This is because ensuring secure email services will keep your website, money transaction information, and other important information secure. So you have to make a cybersecurity plan and make sure that it works.
3. Educate employees
The best businesses in the world also train their employees on cybersecurity. Because email is not only associated with outgoing e-mail, it also involves a lot more risk with incoming mail. It is difficult to say which of the spam emails you receive is more corrupt. Spammers can get your mail address in many ways. There are many websites on the Internet whose job is to sell e-mail addresses.
When e-mail addresses are written on online forums or websites, e-mail hunter software collects these e-mail addresses and transports them to others. For this, e-mail addresses should not be published anywhere.
At the same time, you need to make sure that you or your employees do not respond to invitational emails without verification. Because this is the best strategy to avoid the trap of malicious attacks. Hence providing cyber security training to the employees may reduce the risk.
4. Update software
Most of the time IT companies just set up e-mail but the software doesn’t give time for updates. The e-mail server is controlled by various web apps or software. Anti-spam protection is more available with software updates. That’s why you should make sure that the provider is giving regular updates.
5. Multi-factor authentication
Although there is an opportunity to login to the account using the e-mail address and password, in the interest of security, you should always login with two or multi-factor authentication. In this method, if the e-mail password is correct, a code is sent to the mobile assigned to the account and the login will be completed only if you can type it correctly. Many people do not use this service due to laziness. However, if an additional security system is active, many unwanted problems can be avoided.
6. Use Password Protections
Many people are confused about the password when opening the e-mail and for this reason, they open their e-mail account with an easy password.
However, it is good to know that you can change your simple password to a stronger one if you wish later. And so do not use any simple password such as your name, family name, date of birth, home number, etc. as an e-mail password.
Also, words that are easy to understand or that are in the dictionary are not safe to use as passwords. Because hackers have millions of words in the software that can be used to try to get into your account. Therefore, enter a random combination of letters and numbers that you will only remember. Change the password from time to time if possible.
7. Scan e-mail always
One of the ways to hack an e-mail account is to steal other information, including passwords, by inserting malicious applications into your computer. In this way, in order to hack the account, first a number of messages are sent to the user’s mail address, including the ‘attached file’.
The attached file may be displayed as an urgent document. Users download it without realizing it. Once the file is downloaded it can run automatically and smuggle important information to the computer. For this, if an attached file comes from an unfamiliar mail account, you have to download it with a lot of understanding.
Use software or apps that scan every time an email is sent or the email you receive. Moreover, the provider also needs to be sure whether the email server is scanned regularly. Things like inappropriate language and images should also be looked at in the email so that it can actually be filtered.
To sum it up
E-mail allows you to send instant messages to any part of the world at any time. It has revolutionized the communication system in the business sector. With a little caution mentioned above, you can avoid many of the hassles of email.