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Email Security Guide For Business

What is Email Security, how does it work, what are the benefits and what are the key features?

6 min read

By Craig MacAlpine Updated September 6th, 2021

What is Email Security?

Email Security comprises of multiple different technologies that protect employees, data and businesses against threats that originate from email. Email is the number one target used by hackers to attempt to breach company data, meaning that it is crucial that all businesses have a robust Email Security technology in place.

The Email Security market is vast, comprising of mature technologies that were developed to protect on-premise email networks, and emerging technologies, that protect against new threats that have emerged with the move to cloud based email infrastructures.

Email Security can provide protection from incoming email threats. It aims to block key email threats such as spam emails, phishing attacks and malware. Email Security vendors utilize machine learning, to protect against sophisticated threats such as spear-phishing and Business Email Compromise.

The main purpose of these technologies is to keep your business data and employees fully protected from the threats that can be posted from email communications.

What are the Different Types of Email Security?

There are multiple email security solutions that are suitable for different kinds of customer and sizes of organization, each fulfilling unique security needs. In our view, the best way achieve rounded protection against email threats is to implement a multi-layered security approach, which utilizes two or more of these technologies:

Secure Email Gateway	Post-Delivery Protection	Isolation
How it Works
Filters email before it reaches the email server.	Operates within the email server.	Isolates email threats entirely away from end user devices.
Key Features
Filters Spam Emails Malware Protection Stops Phishing Reporting and Controls	Spear-Phishing Protection Stops Business Email Compromise Email Content Filtering Ransomware Protection	Blocks Spear-Phishing Attacks Protects Against Malicious URLS Prevents Credential Theft Isolates All Web Based Threats
Deployment
Cloud Based, On-Premise and Hybrid	Cloud Based	Cloud Based
Suitable For
SMB and Enterpise Customers	SMB and Enterpise Customers	Midsized and Enterprise Customers

Email Security Systems Breakdown

Secure Email Gateway:

The Secure Email Gateway acts as a firewall for your email communications. It blocks malicious emails, such as spam, malware and phishing attacks, before they can reach your email server. It allows you to protect all of your user inboxes from harmful content, and scales across your organization.

Secure Email Gateways provide protection against spam, viruses, malware and phishing attacks, alongside providing admins with granular controls and reporting over emails.

Post-Delivery Protection

Post-Delivery Protection works within your email server, allowing admins and users to remove malicious emails from inside user inboxes. It provides greater security and control over your internal email infrastructure.

Post-Delivery Protection protects businesses against external and internal email threats such as phishing attacks, spear-phishing and business email compromise. Attacks can be detected and stopped in real-time.

Isolation

Isolation technologies work as an ‘air-gap’ between your users’ endpoints and the internet. It works by isolating all of a users’ web traffic in a cloud-based secure browser. This traffic is then mirrored back to the browser, providing a seamless user experience, while removing all web based threats.

Isolation technologies integrate with email networks to provide protection against spear-phishing attacks, malicious URLs and credential theft. All email links and attachments are opened in isolation, which removes any threats. When a user opens a link to a phishing website, it is displayed in read only form, preventing the user from accidentally compromising account data.

Why Do You Need Email Security?

1. Protection Against Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks are the biggest type of attack facing organizations at the moment, growing 65% over the last year. These threats originate via emails, attempting to trick users into giving away account details by impersonating trusted accounts or contacts. These attacks can be costly, and lead to data theft reputational damage.

These threats are growing more and more sophisticated and require strong technological solutions to mitigate.

Secure Email Gateway	Post-Delivery Protection	Isolation
Spots and prevents sender spoofing Uses domain name validation to identify and block phishing attacks Anti-Virus and malware sandboxing removes phishing emails with malicious links	Automated phishing analysis and removal of phishing attacks Allows users to report phsihing and remove phishing emails from emails automatically Malicious URL and attachment detection Improved Sendor Authentication	Integrates with email networks to spot spear-phishing attacks, and delivers warnings to users on suspicious websites Prevents credential theft by displaing unknown or unsafe phishing websites in ‘read-only mode’ All links and attachments are opened in isolation, preventing the spread of malware and ransomware through phishing

Secure Email Gateway

Post-Delivery Protection

Isolation

Spots and prevents sender spoofing

Uses domain name validation to identify and block phishing attacks

Anti-Virus and malware sandboxing removes phishing emails with malicious links

Automated phishing analysis and removal of phishing attacks

Allows users to report phsihing and remove phishing emails from emails automatically

Malicious URL and attachment detection

Improved Sendor Authentication

Integrates with email networks to spot spear-phishing attacks, and delivers warnings to users on suspicious websites

Prevents credential theft by displaing unknown or unsafe phishing websites in ‘read-only mode’

All links and attachments are opened in isolation, preventing the spread of malware and ransomware through phishing

2. Protection against Spam

Spam emails have always been and continue to be a security threat, productivity drain and all around nuisance for email users. This is true even on new cloud based email clients such as Office 365 and G-Suite. Email Security is needed to stop nuisance email from entering users inboxes, reducing the spam strain on IT departments.

Secure Email Gateway	Post-Delivery Protection	Isolation
Blocks and quarantines email from known spam email domains Detects patterns in new spam emails and blocks them Allows end users to report and block spam emails that make it through the gateway	Allows users and admins to report spam emails Allows admins to remove spam emails from the inbox Quarantines email based on AI, machine learning and reports from end users at other organizations	Isolates any malicious links contained within spam emails

Secure Email Gateway

Post-Delivery Protection

Isolation

Blocks and quarantines email from known spam email domains

Detects patterns in new spam emails and blocks them

Allows end users to report and block spam emails that make it through the gateway

Allows users and admins to report spam emails

Allows admins to remove spam emails from the inbox

Quarantines email based on AI, machine learning and reports from end users at other organizations

Isolates any malicious links contained within spam emails

3. Protection Against Malware, Viruses and Ransomware

It’s important that all users and employees are protected against Malware, Viruses and Ransomware. These email threats can be extremely damaging to businesses, causing data to be stolen, lost or destroyed. They are costly to deal with, and put employees and customers at risk.

Email Security can help to prevent Malware, Viruses and Ransomware from being delivered to your employees via emails.

Secure Email Gateway	Post-Delivery Protection	Isolation
Proactively blocks malware, virus and ransomware threats from entering inboxes Improves incident response and effectiveness Shares threat intelligence for faster, more effective, detection, response and remediation	Attachment and URL Sandboxing Uses advanced deep learning algorithms and computer vision to automatically block access to malicious URLs Continuous inbound protection against malicious links and attachments using multiple AV and sandbox solutions	All web links are opened in isolation, eliminating any threats All email attachments are opend in isolation, stopping any downloads to the local device

Secure Email Gateway

Post-Delivery Protection

Isolation

Proactively blocks malware, virus and ransomware threats from entering inboxes

Improves incident response and effectiveness

Shares threat intelligence for faster, more effective, detection, response and remediation

Attachment and URL Sandboxing

Uses advanced deep learning algorithms and computer vision to automatically block access to malicious URLs

Continuous inbound protection against malicious links and attachments using multiple AV and sandbox solutions

All web links are opened in isolation, eliminating any threats

All email attachments are opend in isolation, stopping any downloads to the local device

4. Provides Admin Controls, Visibility and Reporting

Most Email Security solutions allows users greater control over their emails, with the ability to have complete visibility into email messages and email threats, and set granular policies around email content and controls.

Strong admin controls, visibility and reporting is a crucial element of a well-rounded email security approach.

Secure Email Gateway	Post-Delivery Protection	Isolation
Admin dashboard Detailed and scheduled reports on spam levels and quarantined mail Policy-based content filtering Acceptable use policies End User Controls Emergency Inbox Controls Individual and group level controls	Admin Dashboard Customize email warning banners and set up simulated phishing campaigns Granular policies over how phishing attacks are reported and quarantined Incident Reports	Admin Dashboard Granular Admin Controls Granular Admin Controls Allow/Deny lists for websites Configurable on a per group basis Admins can set triggers for ‘read-only’ mode and safe document download

Secure Email Gateway

Post-Delivery Protection

Isolation

Admin dashboard

Detailed and scheduled reports on spam levels and quarantined mail

Policy-based content filtering

Acceptable use policies

End User Controls

Emergency Inbox Controls

Individual and group level controls

Admin Dashboard

Customize email warning banners and set up simulated phishing campaigns

Granular policies over how phishing attacks are reported and quarantined

Incident Reports

Admin Dashboard

Granular Admin Controls

Allow/Deny lists for websites

Configurable on a per group basis

Admins can set triggers for ‘read-only’ mode and safe document download

Email Security Use Cases

Secure Email Gateway

A typical use case for a Secure Email Gateway would be an organization receiving a large number of malicious emails, such as spam or malware emails. They need a solution that quarantines these malicious emails, before they enter inboxes. They also want to implement some custom policies, to allow certain emails to be received, and reporting, so they can see where email threats are coming from. They may also want to integrate their Email Security with Email Encryption, or Email Archiving, to meet legal and compliance needs.

Secure Email Gateways suit these customers, as they provide comprehensive protection against malicious emails, as well as offering granular admin controls and reporting.

Post-Delivery Protection

A typical Post Delivery Protection customer is an organization that is being hit by phishing attacks, or have lost money to phishing attacks in the past. They need strong protection from advanced email threats like phishing, spear-phishing and business email compromise, as well as protection from malicious links/URLs and malware. These customers will also be likely to want to engage in Security Awareness Training, to help to train their employees to more effectively deal with phishing attacks.

Post-Delivery protection suits these customers as they offer multiple different ways to detect and respond to phishing attacks, such as the ability for admins to remove phishing attacks from inboxes and showing warning banners to users on suspected phishing emails. Admins can set granular controls, such as automatically deleted suspected phishing emails. Some Post-Delivery Protection vendors also provide Security Awareness Training, which integrates with their existing admin console and dashboard.

Isolation

Customers of Isolation aim to totally remove the threats of phishing attacks and web based malware. They need a solution that can deal with the problem entirely, so they don’t need to worry if one of their users accidentally or unknowingly clicks a malicious link in a phishing email. They want to ensure their networks are secure, and that their data is protected.

Isolation helps these customers as it isolates all users web browsing into safe, containerized isolated browsers, which is then rendered onto the users’ machine. This means all threats are totally eliminated. If a user clicks a link to a malicious website, it will not be able to download anything to the users machine. If a user clicks on a link to a phishing website that looks genuine, read-only mode will prevent the user from putting in their credentials and compromising any account information.

Top Email Security Providers

Proofpoint Essentials

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Proofpoint’s Essentials Secure Email Gateway platform provides cloud based, enterprise-class security for small and medium sized enterprises. It offers complete email protection, with spam and phishing protection, dynamic analysis of URLs and attachments, social media account protection and policy enforced encryption and data loss prevention. Proofpoint Essentials also provides Email Continuity, Encryption and Archiving.
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