What to Look for in an Email Security Solution

An important aspect to email security is, of course, deploying a good email security solution. But, with so many available in the market, what should you be looking for when opting for an email security tool? Here are some key features you would want in your email security solution.

• Encryption: Let’s start with the worst-case scenario. Your corporate email server is hacked. By opting for an email security solution that offers data encryption, you can ensure that the thieves are never able to read the data they stole. Data encryption is basically coding of data in a different format when it is sent and decoding it once it reaches the recipient. Without decryption keys, no one in the middle will be able to make sense of the data they access.
• Ditch older, less-secure email protocols: In older email systems relying on POP and IMAP protocols–the kind provided by ISPs and allowed on some free accounts, the emails are stored on servers and transmitted every time the email software client (Outlook, Thunderbird, Mail, etc.) establishes connection with them—most times with rather weakly protected authentication. Newer, web-based systems offer additional security by requiring base-level encryption of credentials and authentication of the those sending mail through them. Received mail is more likely to pass through certain checks verifying its authenticity.
• Strong filters: Make sure your email security tool has strong filtering capabilities to keep spam and malicious emails out of your inbox. Training employees to identify spam and fraudulent emails is good, but getting an email security software that keeps most of them away adds an extra layer of protection that minimizes the human threat!
• Intelligence: When looking for an email security software, consider its artificial intelligence. According to Biztech, a leading business technology news magazine, newer anti-malware rely less on signatures of known malicious content and instead uses threat intelligence, reputation services and other near-real-time sources to pinpoint the location of threats — domains, sending IP addresses and email addresses, for example to alert IT teams. Cybercriminals are getting smarter by the day, and always innovating, looking for ways to get around the anti-malware tools existing in the market. You need an email security solution that can keep up with them.

The critical role played by email in your business environment and its vulnerability make it imperative that you deploy strong security solutions for your email. Reach out to a credible MSP to learn more about how you can keep your email system clean and safe.