Email Security

Email security is the implementation of policies, technologies, and practices to protect email communication from threats to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of email data.

It's a multilayered defense system that tackles things like:

• Malicious emails: This includes malware (malicious software) that can infect your device, spam that clogs your inbox, and phishing attacks that try to trick you into revealing personal information.
• Account takeover: Criminals want access to your accounts for all sorts of reasons, and email is a common entry point. Strong security helps keep them out.
• Data breaches: There may be sensitive information in email, and security measures can prevent that information from leaking.

It’s important that users and organizations take measures to guarantee the security of their email accounts against known attacks. Proper infrastructure is especially important to stop unauthorized attempts at accessing accounts or communications. This is why email security solutions should start with proper techniques like encryption, spyware detection, and login security.

• Email security involves multiple layers of protection against threats like phishing, malware, and account takeovers.
• Common email attacks include phishing, fraud, malware, impersonation, interception, and account takeovers.
• Comprehensive email security solutions combine multiple tools, including secure gateways, cloud security, and user awareness training.

Since nearly everyone uses email, it’s a popular entry point for cybercriminals, who attack these accounts in a variety of ways. The most common attacks involve phishing, malware, email interception, account takeover, and other fraud tactics.

Phishing

Phishing is a sneaky tactic that cybercriminals use to trick people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware. It's like cyber fishing — they cast a lure (a fake message), hoping you'll bite (click a link or download something).

These attacks typically contain three elements:

• Deception: Phishing messages appear to come from a trusted source, like your bank, credit card company, or even a friend.
• Urgency: They often create a sense of urgency to pressure you into acting quickly without thinking it through. For example, they might say that your account has been compromised and that you need to take immediate action to fix it.
• Fake links and attachments: These messages often include links that take you to a fake website designed to steal your information or attachments that contain malware.

Phishing takes many forms and can be extremely challenging to detect. That’s one of the reasons phishing and other social engineering attacks are some of the most popular infiltration methods hackers use. The different types of phishing attacks include:

• Email phishing: A classic approach that tricks users through emails with fake urgency. For example, attackers might impersonate legitimate companies to steal personal information via links or attachments.
• Spear phishing: A more targeted attack in which bad actors gather information about a specific person or company beforehand to craft highly believable emails that exploit trust.
• Whaling: Targets high-profile individuals like chief executive officers (CEOs) or chief financial officers (CFOs) in hopes of snagging a bigger prize, like access to sensitive data or financial resources.
• Smishing and vishing: A tactic that switches the channel to phones. Smishing combines SMS (text messages) with email phishing tactics, while vishing involves phone calls impersonating banks, tech support, or other trusted sources.
• Angler phishing: A type of phishing that uses social media platforms. Attackers might pose as customer service representatives in direct messages or use fake social media profiles to spread phishing links or gather personal details.

Fraud

At the highest level, fraud is a deliberate act that deceives another person, typically to steal money or valuable information.

More specifically, email fraud refers to the full web of deceptive tactics cybercriminals use to steal money, data, or even control of your email account. It includes fraudulent techniques like phishing, spoofing and business email compromise (BEC).

Attackers might also use malicious attachments to infect your device with malware, or they might send fake invoices or order confirmations from fraudulent accounts. Email fraudsters may even resort to extortion, threatening to expose personal information unless you pay.

Malware

Malware, short for malicious software, is a nasty surprise often delivered through email attachments or links. Disguised as greetings from friends, invoices, or even urgent messages from your bank, these emails might appear harmless. But within the attachments or hidden behind those links lie Trojans, viruses, spyware, ransomware, adware, keyloggers, or other harmful programs.

Once clicked or downloaded, malware can wreak havoc on your device. It might steal your personal information, passwords, or credit card details. In some cases, it can even lock you out of your own files, demanding a ransom payment to regain access (ransomware). This is why it's crucial to be cautious with email attachments and links, especially those from unknown senders.

Impersonation

Email impersonation is a cunning trick scammers use to steal money or data. They craft emails disguised as coming from someone you trust, like your boss, bank, or a friend. The sender's address might be a close copy of the real one, or scammers might even hack a legitimate account.

Once attackers have your attention, they'll lure you into clicking a malicious link, revealing personal details, or sending money to a fake account. Be cautious of unsolicited emails, even if they seem to come from someone you know. Always verify sender addresses, and never give out sensitive information via email.

Email interception

Email interception is a stealthy attack criminals use to snag your emails while in transit from one inbox to another. Think of it like eavesdropping on a conversation. Attackers hack into your email provider's server by exploiting weaknesses in the email process, compromising your device.

With access, attackers can steal sensitive information like login credentials, financial details, or confidential business documents. They can even alter the content of emails before they reach the recipient, potentially causing confusion or financial loss.

To protect yourself, use strong passwords and enable two-factor authentication (2FA) or multifactor authentication (MFA) for your email. Be wary of public Wi-Fi networks, which often lack security protections, and avoid clicking on suspicious links in emails.

Account takeover

Account takeover (ATO) is a serious email attack in which criminals hijack your entire email account. They achieve this by various means, often through phishing emails. These emails trick you into revealing your login credentials on a fake website, mimicking the login page. Once stolen, attackers use your password to access your email and wreak havoc.

With control of your account, they can steal even more sensitive information from your inbox, like financial documents or Social Security numbers. They can also launch further attacks by impersonating you and sending malicious emails to your contacts.

To prevent ATO, never click on suspicious links or attachments in emails. Use strong, unique passwords, and enable 2FA or MFA for added security. If you suspect your account has been compromised, immediately change your password and contact your email provider.

Is email secure? Well, the truth is that, despite their widespread use, email accounts possess inherent weaknesses that make them prime targets for cyberattacks.

Security for email relies heavily on the end user’s ability to discern credible emails from malicious ones. Phishing attackers exploit this by crafting emails that appear to be from legitimate sources, tricking users into clicking malicious links or revealing personal details. Since email addresses can be spoofed to mimic real ones, even seemingly familiar senders can pose a threat.  

Finally, the security of email accounts hinges on strong passwords and access controls. Weak passwords can be easily guessed or cracked through brute-force attacks, while lax access controls like disabled 2FA create easy entry points for attackers.

The best email security is multilayered, involves several types of software, and leverages the latest technology. There are multiple ways to secure email accounts, but the basic requirements are comprehensive security policies and robust employee education.

For companies

• Password cycling: Require employees to use strong passwords, and mandate frequent password changes. This helps to ensure that, even if a password is compromised, its use can be limited.
• Secure login: Ensure that webmail applications use encryption. This is standard functionality, but it is critical to preventing malicious actors from intercepting emails.
• Spam filtering: Implement scanners and other tools to scan messages and block emails containing malware or other malicious files before they reach end users. Even relatively benign spam — such as marketing offers — can hamper productivity if employees have to remove it from their inboxes manually.
• Spyware protection: A robust cybersecurity program or a dedicated spyware removal service that can dispose of malicious email attachments and repair altered files/settings.
• Email encryption: Encryption technologies such as OpenPGP let users encrypt emails between sender and recipient. This is a necessity for businesses where sensitive information is shared frequently via communication platforms like email.
• Employee education: Engage employees in ongoing security education around email security risks and how to avoid falling victim to phishing attacks over email. Some companies send their own employees mock phishing emails to test their resistance to these attacks.

For employees

• Be selective with email links and attachments: Avoid opening attachments, and avoid clicking on hyperlinks without checking them first. 
• Limit transmission of sensitive material: Avoid sharing sensitive information within emails — only send to trusted individuals, and only when required.
• Protect your IP address: Use secure virtual private network (VPN) software to access corporate email when working remotely.
• Stick to the corporate network: Don’t access company email or sensitive information when using public Wi-Fi connections.

Complete email security relies on several software tools acting simultaneously, creating a layered protection approach. Some popular email security applications include:

• Secure email gateways (SEGs): These act as security checkpoints for your email, scanning incoming and outgoing messages for malware, spam, and phishing attempts before they reach your inbox.
• Email cloud security: This type of cloud-based solution integrates directly with your email provider (like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace) to offer real-time protection against evolving threats. It can analyze email content, attachments, and sender behavior for suspicious activity.
• Strong passwords and multifactor authentication: Using complex, unique passwords and enabling MFA adds an extra layer of security by requiring a second verification step beyond just your password to access your email.
• Email encryption: This scrambles the contents of your emails, making them unreadable to anyone who shouldn't see them. This is especially important for sending sensitive information.
• Security awareness training: Educating users about email threats and best practices is crucial. Training can help employees identify phishing attempts, avoid suspicious links, and protect sensitive information.

Email encryption acts like a digital vault, shielding your messages from prying eyes during their journey between you and the recipient. Unlike sending a postcard where anyone can read the message, encryption transforms your email's content into an unreadable code, ensuring confidentiality. Here's how it works:

1. The encryption process: When you compose an encrypted email, the chosen encryption method scrambles the message using a mathematical algorithm. This algorithm essentially creates a complex lock-and-key system. There are two main types of encryption used for emails: symmetric and asymmetric.
   • Symmetric encryption uses a single key for both encryption and decryption, similar to a combination lock.
   • Asymmetric encryption uses a public-key pair. You have a public key that anyone can use to encrypt messages to you, but a separate private key that only you possess to decrypt them.
2. Secure transmission: Once your email is encrypted, it becomes an unintelligible mess of characters. This encrypted message is then sent over the internet. Even if someone intercepts the email in transit, they won't be able to decipher its content without the decryption key.
3. Decryption at the destination: Upon reaching the recipient's inbox, the decryption process unlocks the message. In symmetric encryption, the recipient would need the same shared key you used for encryption. With asymmetric encryption, the recipient would use their private key to decrypt the message sent with the public key.

While encryption offers robust protection, it's important to understand its limitations. Encryption safeguards the content of your emails, but it doesn't necessarily shield the sender and recipient addresses or the subject line. Additionally, encryption typically happens while the email is in transit. Once it reaches the recipient's server and gets decrypted, it's no longer encrypted unless additional security measures are in place on the recipient's end.

With email remaining the leading threat vector for ransomware, phishing, data theft, and other advanced threats, leaving yourself unprotected is a huge risk. Fortunately, Barracuda Email Protection is an all-in-one solution that delivers gateway defense, API-based impersonation and phishing protection, incident response, data protection, compliance, and user awareness training.

Barracuda Email Protection includes:

• Spam, Malware, and Advanced Threat Protection quickly filters and sanitizes every email before it is delivered to your mail server to protect you from email-borne threats. Using virus scanning, spam scoring, real-time intent analysis, URL link protection, reputation checks, and other techniques, Barracuda provides you with the best possible level of protection.
• Impersonation Protection protects against business email compromise, account takeover, spear phishing, and other cyber fraud. It combines artificial intelligence and deep integration with Microsoft 365 into a comprehensive cloud-based solution.
  Impersonation Protection’s unique API-based architecture lets the AI engine study historical email and learn users’ unique communication patterns. It blocks phishing attacks that harvest credentials and lead to account takeover, and it enables real-time remediation.
• Security Awareness Training is an email security awareness and phishing simulation solution designed to protect your organization against targeted phishing attacks. Security Awareness Training trains employees to understand the latest social engineering phishing techniques, recognize subtle phishing clues, and prevent email fraud, data loss, and brand damage. Security Awareness Training transforms employees from a potential email security risk to a powerful line of defense against damaging phishing attacks. .
• Incident Response automates incident response and provides remediation options to address issues faster and more efficiently. Admins can send alerts to impacted users and quarantine malicious email directly from their inboxes with a couple of clicks. Discovery and threat insights provided by the Incident Response platform help to identify anomalies in delivered email, providing more proactive ways to detect email threats.
• Barracuda Email Protection also includes data protection and compliance capabilities through Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Data Inspector, and Cloud Archiving.

Imagine the safety of multiple enterprise-level security solutions combined into one platform. Experience the joy of corporate email with peace of mind. To get started or ask questions, contact the Barracuda team today!