Email security is the practice of protecting email communication and accounts from unauthorized activity, account takeover, phishing scams, spam emails, and more. Because email is one of the primary forms of communication for businesses, maintaining a strong email security posture is critical for the continuity of a modern business. Securing your email can be done in several ways including educating yourself or members of an organization on common threats and best practices to prevent cyber attacks.

In addition to being the primary form of communication for most businesses, emails often contain sensitive information such as financial data or customer information. The quantity of emails sent and the contents they contain make email a primary attack path for cyber criminals. 

Cybercriminals are constantly attempting phishing campaigns or using nuanced attacks like social engineering tactics to trick users into giving away valuable information or login credentials. Lack of appropriate training or security measures can lead to compromised email accounts, data breaches, and malware infections.

Many industries have legal and regulatory requirements for data security, such as HIPAA or PCI DSS. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in significant fines and legal penalties. Email security measures can help organizations meet compliance requirements and avoid costly breaches.

Encryption: This is a method of security which ensures that only the intended recipient of an email will be able to read its contents. This is done by converting the contents of an email message into a coded language that can only be deciphered by someone with the encryption key. This way, if the email is intercepted while being sent, the information remains secure.

Digital signatures: This is a cryptographic method to verify the authenticity of a message and its sender. Using a digital signature will ensure the recipient that the message was not tampered with in any way.

Spam filters: Individuals and businesses receive hundreds of spam messages every day. Most email software come equipped with spam filters that can automatically detect and filter out unwanted messages. These messages might contain malicious links, content, or phishing attacks. 

Security awareness training: Most organizations implement security awareness training to keep their employees up to date on the best practices to avoid cyber risk. This involves educating users on how to recognize and avoid phishing attacks, how to create strong passwords, know what information is ok to share with people outside the company, and other practices.

Firewalls: This is a system that protects the network from unwanted traffic. Based on what the organization or security operators have identified as unwanted, the firewall system can stop all traffic that corresponds with these rules.

Two-factor authentication: This requires users to provide two forms of confirmation to access their email accounts. For example, someone might need to login with a password from their laptop and confirm via their phone that they are the ones signing in. This will help prevent account compromise and identify compromised account credentials.

Integrated cloud email security (ICES): Is a type of email security solution that supplements cloud-based email service, such as Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace, or Amazon WorkMail. An ICES solution will provide advanced email protection against a wide range of threats, including spam, phishing, malware, and ransomware.

Email security protocols: Implement DKIM, SPF, and DMARC protocols to prevent email spoofing and improve email security.

Use email security tools: Deploy anti malware, spam filters, firewalls, and email security gateways to block malicious emails and maintain email security.

Strong password management: Encourage the use of strong, unique passwords, password managers, and regular password updates. Avoid password reuse across accounts.

Regular backups: Schedule regular backups of email data and ensure the process is secure, encrypted, and tested periodically.

Logging out practices: Require employees to log out of email accounts when not in use, especially on shared devices, and enable automatic logouts after inactivity.

Prevent data leakage: Use Data Loss Prevention (DLP) tools to monitor and block unauthorized sharing of sensitive information via email.

Email, by default, is not secure as it can be intercepted or compromised while traveling to a recipient or in the inbox. To send a secure email, you can use encrypted email services or software. Cyber criminals are constantly trying to compromise email accounts, send spam into your inbox, and use phishing as a method to obtain sensitive information. Always be cautious when clicking on links or opening/downloading files from unknown senders.

Encrypted email refers to the process of encoding the content of an email message to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure. By scrambling the contents of an email message, only the intended audience who have the encryption key can open and read the email.

Organizations often use encrypted emails to communicate within their business because the cost of leaked data is far worse than an encryption service. 

Email encryption has three types. 

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)

This is an email encryption protocol that is specifically designed for email encryption. PGP can be implemented by anyone because it is an open standard, meaning its publicly available and easy to integrate into other software.

Secure Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extension (S/MIME)

Like PGP, S/MIME is a meant to secure email content using symmetric and asymmetric encryption. The difference between the two is that S/MIME is typically used in the enterprise setting.

Transport Layer Security (TLS)

Different from PGP and S/MIME, TLS is an encryption protocol used to secure network communication. This includes securing web browsing, email, and transferring files. This functions as a way to protect any transfer of data between two end point devices. TLS is regarded as the successor to SSL, together these are two of the most popular encryption protocols available to users and businesses.

There are several signs that your email account has been compromised:

Account access: You do not have access to your email account. Not having access to your email might indicate that someone else has gained access and changed your passwords. Hence, denying you access to your email account.

Password reset: You are receiving password reset notifications that you did not submit yourself. This will happen when a cyber-criminal is attempting to reset the password to your email account. Be cautious if you receive these emails as it is likely that an attempted account takeover is in progress.

Unsolicited messages: People in your contacts are receiving emails you did not send. This indicates that a cyber criminal has gained access to your email account and has began sending requests for money or other information using your credentials. If this happens, it would be wise to communicate to your contact list that your account has been taken over and advise them not to interact with it.

Strange IP address: The account has history of a login from a strange IP address. If this occurs, someone has logged into your account from a strange location. This is also indicative of an account takeover already that already happened. If you receive this message be sure to reset your passwords.

Update Your Security Software: Ensure your antivirus and anti-malware programs are up to date. Run a full scan of your computer or mobile device to detect any malware that may have caused the hack.

Change Your Password: Immediately update your email account password with a strong, unique combination. Avoid reusing passwords from other accounts.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Set up two-factor authentication to add an extra layer of security, requiring both a password and additional verification like a PIN or biometric.

Check for Suspicious Activity in Other Accounts: If your email was hacked, check your banking, social media, and other accounts for unusual activity. Enable 2FA on these accounts as well.

Notify Your Contacts: Inform your email contacts that your account was hacked. Warn them not to click on any suspicious links or attachments sent from your account during the breach.

Use Email Provider's Recovery Service: If you’ve lost access, use your email provider’s recovery options to regain control of your account. Keep security questions and alternate contact info up to date.

Change Security Questions: Update your email security questions to make them harder to guess, especially if your old questions were easy or common.

Be Wary of Spam, Phishing, and Scams: Stay alert for phishing scams and unsolicited emails asking for personal information. Avoid clicking on unknown links or downloading suspicious files.

Validate Apps and Downloads: Only download apps, programs, or content from trusted sources. Avoid pirated or anonymous downloads as they may contain malware.

Regularly Update Operating System and Apps: Ensure your operating system and all applications are set to automatically update to protect against new security threats.

Phishing

Phishing is the process of sending fraudulent emails, while posing as legitimate sender, to convince people to reveal sensitive information such as passwords, social security numbers, bank account information, and more. 

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

Spear phishing

Spear phishing is a type of phishing cyber-attack that targets a specific individual or organization rather than a broad audience. This usually involves an attacker conducting a significant amount of research on an organization or individual to make their attack seem more credible by contextualizing their message with relevant personal or corporate information. These attacks usually come in the form of email messages but ‘spear-phishing’ is a more specific way to describe a socially engineered phishing attempt that is targeted. The goal of a spear phishing attack is to gain access to sensitive information such as credentials or compromise valuable data. This can be done purely through solicitation or through further methods of compromise such as embedding malware into a targeted system.

Account takeover

‍Account takeover fraud, or account compromise refers to a cyber-criminal gaining control of a legitimate account. This can happen when a threat actor successfully obtains an individual’s login credentials. Account takeover can be detrimental to business operations at any organization because with a legitimate account, attackers can operate covertly, have a stamp of credibility, and authority depending on who’s account is compromised.

BEC

BEC stands for Business Email Compromise. BEC involves attackers gaining unauthorized access to a company's email account or impersonating a trusted individual for the purpose of carrying out fraudulent actions such as transferring money or obtaining sensitive information through social engineering tactics.

Learn how modern threat actors use AI to power their BEC attacks in the white paper "Beyond the Inbox: A Guide to Preventing Business Email Compromise."

CEO Fraud

‍CEO fraud is a form of impersonation where a threat actor will falsify their identity, acting as a CEO (or other executive) at an organization and attempt to communicate with other employees, such as members of the finance department. They trick using falsified versions of a high-ranking official’s credentials. These attacks are specifically focused on financial gain and often involve urgent requests for the transfer of money.​ 

Whaling

Whaling is a heavily targeted phishing attack in which an attacker attempts to phish a high ranking official, often chief executives. These social engineering cyber-attacks contain information that is highly personalized to the intended target to encourage them to click a link that will download malware, transfer funds to the attacker, or share details that can facilitate further attacks. The effects of a successful whaling attack can be devastating, including data loss, financial loss, and reputational damage.

Darktrace has developed a fundamentally different approach to email security, one that doesn’t learn what’s dangerous from historical data but forms an in-depth understanding of each organization and its users.

Darktrace / EMAIL focuses on individuals - how each person uses their inbox and what constitutes “normal” for each user - in order to detect what’s not normal. Our AI technology builds profiles for every email user, including their relationships, tone and sentiment, content and link sharing patterns, and thousands of other signals.

Because Darktrace understands the human behind email communications rather than knowledge of past attacks, it can stop the most sophisticated and evolving email security risks like generative AI attacks, BEC, account takeover, supply chain attacks, data loss, and ransomware.  

To learn more about Darktrace / EMAIL read our Solution Brief.