Email Security

The use of emails has always been increasing ever since its inception in the 1960s. Business communication, circulation of academic information, conveying personal information – almost everything is passed on between individuals or organizations via emails mainly for either or all of the following reasons:

  • Emails are faster.
  • Emails are reliable.
  • Emails ensure that the information reaches the end recipient and, if not, notifies the sender about it.
  • There is no scope of data loss with emails.
  • Emails are an excellent means of recording information chronologically.

Email Security Service

Read More...

Are Emails Secure?

On the surface, there is nothing to be concerned about in email communication. The accounts of both the sender and the receiver are self-operated and locked by passwords which only both of these parties know. However, with the advancement of useful technology occurs an equal (if not higher) rise in technology which brings vicious attackers and hackers into the picture.

What Is Phishing?

Phishing attacks are just like fishing in a river where a person tries to get hold of a fish by giving it a believable bait of a bread crumb or any similar bit of food. However, in phishing attacks, the fishes are the netizens, and the fishermen are the cyber attackers. Phishing attacks are most commonly circulated via email messages. In such attacks, an unexpected mail from a seemingly credible source asks the receiver to take specific immediate action (such as paying unpaid dues or claiming a reward) by clicking on an attached link or downloading a file. But these are impersonating emails taking the user to fake websites created by the attacker. And often, these install malware into the computers of users. These attacks also happen in other forms like through voice messages (Vishing), SMS frauds (Smishing), attacks targeting the big shots of an organization from whom the profits can be maximum (Whaling) or creating a replica of a website to win the trust of an unsuspecting user (Pharming).

What Is Malware?

Malware is another means used by attackers to install corrupt files and software into the computer systems of users without their permission or against their will. Often malware operates secretly and steals the private information of users without their knowledge. This information is then accessed by the attacker who either uses the data to blackmail the victim, launch a sextortion campaign, or sell the stolen details at a high price in the dark market. Its types include:

  • Ransomware – which locks the system of the user or encrypts files until the demanded ransom is paid.
  • Spyware – which launches spying software into the computer and steals data.
  • Scareware – which attempts to extract user information by instilling fear in them.
  • Adware – where malware gets downloaded via attacker-created fake advertisements.

What Is Email Security?

Email security is the process of shielding email accounts from the attacks of vicious hackers. It refers to the means employed by a user, an organization, or an information network to keep themselves secure from these phishing attempts and malware attacks.

How To Ensure Email Security?

Email security can never be a fool-proof plan as the attackers always manage to find some loophole even in the most sophisticated methods of protection. However, minimizing such attacks is the objective, and this can be achieved by adopting the following measures:

  • Setting strong passwords: Strong passwords with alphanumeric characters and symbols are highly recommended. It’s always more important to have secure passwords instead of easy to remember passwords.
  • Changing passwords from time to time: Using the same password for too long makes you more vulnerable to hacking attempts of attackers. Hence it is always advisable to change passwords from time to time. Also, having different passwords for different accounts is a smarter decision than otherwise.
  • Having a good antivirus installed: Antivirus software creates a layer of protection against all types of viruses and malware trying to attack your devices. It is a must to have an antivirus when you visit multiple websites on the Internet or install external devices and disks into your computer.
  • Having anti-spam filters: Anti-spam filters ensure that spam emails or messages do not show up in your mailbox, thus protecting your system from the malicious emails sent by attackers. It also saves you a lot of time and energy that gets wasted otherwise in opening those emails.
  • Using only updated software: Software developers update software from time to time to incorporate patches and other improvements to make the software secure and more efficient. Not updating one’s software to the latest version is sending an invitation to attackers to steal your files.
  • Being wise on the web: With everything said and done, the most frugal tip remaining is to be careful on the Internet. One must have a skeptical mind and halt before impulsively clicking on links and pop-ups. A click takes hardly a second, but often its after-effects cost millions of dollars!

Since one cannot do away with emails, one needs to find ways and means of doing away with the threats to email security. Protecting yourselves on the web is not easy but also not unachievable. Taking specific preventive measures goes a long way in keeping attackers and malware away.


Is DKIM2 the next chapter in email authentication?

Is DKIM2 the next chapter in email authentication?

 

The current version of DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) that you might be using was introduced in 2011. A lot has happened in the cybersecurity world since then. Indeed, we have evolved a lot, but so have the hackers! They’ve become smarter, employing sophisticated tricks to impersonate emails, steal data, and scam companies.

(more…)

Best Practices for Secure Email Communication in Remote Work

Best Practices for Secure Email Communication in Remote Work

With the rise of remote work, ensuring secure email communication has never been more critical. Cyber threats continue to evolve, making it essential for businesses and remote employees to adopt robust email security measures. Whether you are an organization managing a distributed workforce or an individual working remotely, understanding and implementing best practices for secure email communication can protect sensitive information and prevent cyberattacks.

(more…)

BIMI Email Security: A Complete Guide to Email Authentication

BIMI Email Security: A Complete Guide to Email Authentication

BIMI enhances email security by allowing brands to display their logos alongside authenticated emails, which helps recipients easily identify legitimate communications and reduces the risk of phishing attacks. To implement BIMI effectively, brands must first establish DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) to prevent domain spoofing and ensure that their emails are properly authenticated.

 

(more…)

SMTP Open Relay Vulnerabilities: How to Prevent Security Breaches

SMTP Open Relay Vulnerabilities: How to Prevent Security Breaches

An SMTP open relay is a mail server configuration that allows users to send emails through the server without authentication, making it vulnerable to exploitation by spammers for sending unsolicited emails. This practice not only leads to increased spam activity but can also compromise the server’s reputation and deliverability rates, necessitating robust security measures to prevent unauthorized access.

(more…)

What is IoT email authentication, and why should you care about it?

What is IoT email authentication, and why should you care about it?

What is IoT email authentication, and why should you care about it?

by DuoCircle

 

If you look around and notice the gadgets you use every day and how interconnected they are, you will realize that these gadgets are constantly communicating with each other and with users over the internet. Whether it is your smartwatch and your phone or the security camera in your home and the cloud storage service, almost everything that you use is part of the ecosystem that is called IoT or Internet of Things

(more…)

How To Perform An Spf Record Check For Your Domain

How To Perform An Spf Record Check For Your Domain

In the digital age, emails have become one of our main ways to communicate, whether it’s sharing important updates with colleagues or sending family photos. But imagine sending an email only for it to vanish into the vastness of cyberspace because your domain isn’t set up correctly. That’s where SPF records come in—they act like a security guard at the email gate, verifying that messages sent from your domain are legitimate and keeping spam at bay.

(more…)

Unintentional DKIM failures: common message modifications that trigger false positives

Unintentional DKIM failures: common message modifications that trigger false positives

Unintentional DKIM failures: common message modifications that trigger false positives

by DuoCircle

 

DKIM is highly sensitive to alterations. This sensitivity is what makes DKIM a robust protocol against phishing attacks attempted by changing the email content while it’s in transit. However, sometimes inadvertent modifications happen in transit, which triggers emails to fail DKIM authentication even if a malicious entity hasn’t altered them. This blog lists the common unintentional modifications that lead to false positives.

(more…)

Can DKIM signatures be forged?

Can DKIM signatures be forged?

 

DKIM works using encryption techniques and digital signatures that help the sender’s server transparently sign outgoing emails so that the recipient’s server can verify if the content has been altered in transit. DKIM is highly sensitive to message modifications; even the slightest difference between the content the sender sent and the recipient received causes DKIM verification to fail

(more…)

What are the most important email security protocols, and how do they protect your communications?

What are the most important email security protocols, and how do they protect your communications?

What are the most important email security protocols, and how do they protect your communications?

by DuoCircle

If you send marketing email campaigns to your clients almost every day, you will know that email is one of the key channels to connect with your audience. But what you might not realize is that it is also the most vulnerable channel that lets cybercriminals in and leaves your entire ecosystem exposed to phishing, spoofing attacks, and data breaches.

(more…)

The key differences between Sender Policy Framework and Sender ID

The key differences between Sender Policy Framework and Sender ID

 

The primitive version of SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) didn’t have a feature to verify the email sender’s authenticity, leaving room for phishing and spoofing instances. Over time, emails became one of the most exploitable attack vectors. It was easier for threat actors to modify the ‘From’ field in an email to impersonate banks, governments, and well-known brands. They would send millions of potentially fraudulent emails each day, urging recipients to ‘reset their password’ or ‘verify their account,’ leading to credential theft. 

(more…)

Data accuracy: What is it, and how can authentication protocols help?

Data accuracy: What is it, and how can authentication protocols help?

Data accuracy: What is it, and how can authentication protocols help?

by DuoCircle

 

Every organization thrives on data— whether it is your customers’ details, financial transactions, or some kind of operational records. This data not only tells you about what is going on in your organization but is also crucial to making strategic decisions or even undertaking everyday operations. So, data is essentially the backbone of your organization. But remember, this data is only valuable when it is accurate. Any discrepancy in the information can have a domino effect on basically everything that is going on in your company

(more…)

Learning to leverage Google Postmaster tools the right way to monitor the performance of your IPs

Learning to leverage Google Postmaster tools the right way to monitor the performance of your IPs

Learning to leverage Google Postmaster tools the right way to monitor the performance of your IPs

by DuoCircle

 

A late 2023 poll found that over half of marketing professionals saw their email marketing ROI double, proving why email has remained a powerful tool since its launch in the 1970s. Now that more brands rely on email marketing for their brand growth, staying relevant in recipients’ inboxes is a challenge. The engagement rate shows positive growth only if your content is meaningful for the receivers. It’s all about figuring out what type of audience likes what and serving them exactly that.  (more…)

How to discover source owners using the ‘envelope_to’ domain?

How to discover source owners using the ‘envelope_to’ domain?

How to discover source owners using the ‘envelope_to’ domain?

by DuoCircle

 

An envelope_to domain is the domain of the recipient’s email address. So, if we shoot an email to someone@sample.com, then sample.com is the envelope_to domain. Now, let’s quickly recall what RUA reports are to understand the concept fully. So, RUA or aggregate DMARC reports are XML-based reports that are sent by the receiving server to the email address specified in the DMARC policy. It includes details like-

(more…)

Understanding the concept of fallback mechanisms in Sender Policy Framework

Understanding the concept of fallback mechanisms in Sender Policy Framework

Understanding the concept of fallback mechanisms in Sender Policy Framework

by DuoCircle

 

Sometimes, when an email doesn’t pass the SPF authentication checks, the receiving server or policies offer better ways to handle or mitigate the failure. This is done using fallback mechanisms— a way to secure email communication without hampering the flow and productivity (more…)

Gmail security requirements for brands and businesses

Gmail security requirements for brands and businesses

 

Gmail is one of the best email service providers in the world. Gmail has managed to beat all the competition because of its state-of-the-art features and seamless integration with other Google services. With a whopping user base of 1.8 billion, Gmail focuses extensively on security requirements and restrictions in order to enhance user safety and data privacy.

(more…)

Best practices to make Privileged Account and Session Management a breeze

Best practices to make Privileged Account and Session Management a breeze

Best practices to make Privileged Account and Session Management a breeze

by DuoCircle

 

Let’s ask you a pertinent question about your organization’s security.

Do you think that the accounts that manage your organization’s most critical systems and sensitive data are well protected? 

If you have to think twice before answering this question, chances are that these might not be as secure as they should be. 

(more…)

Troubleshooting common BIMI issues

Troubleshooting common BIMI issues

 

You probably already know that your logo is one of the biggest assets your brand owns, but wouldn’t it be great if it showed next to your emails in the inboxes of your recipients? The way to make that happen is BIMI, which stands for Brand Indicators for Message Identification. BIMI lets your logo show up next to your emails when they land in the recipient’s mailbox, which will help your brand stand out and build trust with your audience.

(more…)

Building a zero-trust security model for emails

Building a zero-trust security model for emails

 

According to Verizon’s 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report, somewhere between 75% and 91% of targeted cyberattacks start with an email. Considering that such statistics surface in the news every day, organizations are trying to keep up with the growing number of sophisticated cyberattacks. Email is one of the most exploited vectors for phishing and ransomware attacks. Traditional security measures and technologies are evidently failing to ward off new-age cyberattacks; that’s why the latest solutions, like zero-trust security models, are emerging as robust alternatives. 

(more…)

Pin It on Pinterest