Cloud email is email that is hosted on a remote server. These servers are accessible by the internet and hosted by a third-party service providers.

Organizations that use cloud email enable access to user email accounts via the internet. Here users can access their email account by connecting to the cloud-based server to conduct business related activity.

Cloud email offers several advantages, including:

Scalability

As organizations grow in size and add new users they can easily scale their email infrastructure to accommodate for their growing needs. Cloud email offers you the capacity to only pay for what you need at the time, with option to add additional infrastructure as you grow.

Accessibility

Users can access their email accounts from anywhere they have internet connection. 

Cost savings

Cloud email eliminates the need for organizations to invest in and maintain their email servers and infrastructure which can be costly given the size of an organization.

Reliability

Cloud providers ensure high availability and redundancy, reducing the risk of email downtime.

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Security is a crucial aspect of cloud email. Some common challenges include: 

Unauthorized access

Email accounts are susceptible to account takeover and other forms of email attacks that attempt to solicit sensitive information. Unauthorized access in the form of account takeover can pose serious security risks that might result in data loss and other security concerns. 

Phishing attacks

With any form of email users risk the chance of falling victim to email-based scams or phishing attempts. Phishing attempts use fraudulent email addresses or social engineering tactics in attempt to solicit sensitive information. Adopting advanced email security solutions and conducting consistent security awareness training are some ways to stop successful phishing attacks on cloud-based email accounts.

Learn how modern threat actors use AI to turbo-charge their phishing attacks in the white paper "How AI is Changing the Phishing Landscape." 

Malware and virus protection

Email accounts are susceptible to receiving emails that contain malicious content. Some cyber criminals will mask their identity and use malicious links in emails in attempt to get a user to download malware. Ensuring email attachments and links are scanned for malware and viruses will help protect user’s cloud-based email accounts.

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Cloud email providers implement various security measures, such as:

Encryption

Emails can be encrypted in order to protect the confidentiality of the data. An email encryption encodes the email to ensure that it cannot be intercepted by an unauthorized individual. 

Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

MFA is a zero-trust security measure that requires users to authenticate their identity before gaining authorization to access data. 

Spam filtering

Spam filters are advanced algorithms that can identify and block spam emails. Many email security providers have spam filtering capabilities such as secure email gateways.

 A cloud email attack can have severe consequences, such as:

Unauthorized access

If an attacker gains access to the cloud environment organizations run the risk of compromising confidential business data and personal information of employees or customers.

Financial loss

If an attacker gains access to account information an organization can experience fraudulent activity on their behalf. Also, if an attacker is able to deploy malware onto a system the ransom demands on the data can be extremely costly.

Reputational damage

Compromised data is not only a security concern but also causes considerable reputational damage for an organization. It is possible to lose credibility as a business because of a successful cyber-attack.

Disruption of business operations

If an email account or server is compromised, it will likely result in a halt of business operations resulting in a loss in revenue.

Organizations can take several measures to improve cloud email security, such as:

Employee training and awareness programs

‍Security awareness training is a measure organization can use to educate employees and users about email security best practices. This includes setting safe passwords, identifying spoofed senders, phishing emails, and other malicious attempts attackers take to infiltrate systems and data.

Regularly updating and patching

‍Security teams can monitor critical assets and identify potential vulnerabilities in their email client software to protect against known vulnerabilities and attacks before they happen. 

Engaging with a trusted cloud email provider

‍Darktrace/Email and Darktrace/Cloud are trusted providers in cloud and email-based security that offers robust security features and adheres to industry best practices.

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Darktrace/Cloud is powered by Self-Learning AI, which learns an organization’s normal business operations so it can recognize subtle deviations that indicate a cyber-attack. In this way, Darktrace offers highly bespoke security solutions that can be deployed anywhere a company has data, including standard cloud deployments, as well as serverless and microservices. 

Darktrace/Cloud has the capacity to integrate with Darktrace/Email bringing an end-to-end security solution that works on real time data from both cloud and email environments. By understanding user behavior in the cloud and email, Darktrace’s Self-Learning AI can detect and respond to threats that deviate from normal activity, stopping account takeover, human error, phishing attacks, and more.