Because of an increase in the use of email for communication, malicious actors have more opportunities to exploit lax email security. When they do launch email-based cyber attacks, it’s always the company, among others, that’s on the losing end.
These cybersecurity challenges are more prevalent than you think. As a result, around 80 percent believe they are likely, extremely likely, or will 100% suffer the consequences of email-borne attacks due to phishing and ransomware incidents.
But here’s what’s reassuring: proactive email content moderation significantly reduces the chances of a cyber email attack. It’s simple for the most part. If you stop malicious email content in its tracks, you’re halfway there.
Why exactly is content moderation in email security important? Here are four reasons:
1. It helps prevent spam
Spam attacks often lead to additional security threats. This exposes you to malware, ransomware, and spear-phishing attacks.
Your foremost line of defense against potentially malicious emails should be content moderation. As part of your email security, set up filters to ensure spam doesn’t get into your business mailbox in the first place.
Often, you can do this by adjusting the settings in your email client application. Some of these applications have active spam filters that identify malicious sender addresses, suspicious content, and unusual links.
You can moderate content by:
Spam filtering by content: Here, you set up word-based filters to flag emails containing spam words like ‘winner”, “cash prize”, “additional income” etc. You may also set up heuristic filters to focus on suspicious spam terms or words such as, “Rolex” or “Viagra”.
These terms are assigned points based on their usage in spam emails; the higher the score, the more likely the filter discards that email. Minor scores are given to ordinary words that can be found in illegitimate emails, too. This is why a content generator can help you bypass spam filters if you’re the email writer. It can suggest words you can use in your email that aren’t spam triggers.
Flagging the email as spam: Setting up a bayesian filter can be effective and efficient in the long run. This filter uses mathematical theorem to determine the legitimacy of an email based on words used in the title and email body.
But, you must manually flag spam messages as spam so the Bayesian filter learns these spam words. As time goes by, it builds its own spam word lists and evaluates incoming email content against them.
The thing is, native email applications can only do so much to prevent spam. Word-based filters can also be prone to false positives. The filters may also be bypassed by smart attackers using ‘risk-free’ words in their messages.
This is why your company needs advanced, predictive technology to accurately identify spam email content and minimize risks.
DuoCircle’s anti-spam gateway offers a comprehensive and proactive solution to meet your organization’s spam filtering needs. Its enterprise email security with SMTP gateway has the features you see in an Enterprise Grade Spam Filtering solution, but it comes at a way lower cost.
DuoCircle’s anti-spam gateway includes commercial anti-spam and multi-tiered antivirus filtering, with customizable rules updated hourly.
You can junk spam even more with the tool’s Smart Quarantine feature. This feature can be used by unlimited users, with instant protection guaranteed. In other words, you don’t need additional configuration.
2. It protects sensitive information
Your emails have personal and work data like contacts, daily schedules, online shopping receipts, etc. Hackers may want this information. So, you need to enhance your email security.
Content moderation in email security can reinforce your business email and help protect your information from cybercriminals.
You can protect your sensitive information by doing the following:
Use a strong password
Protect your email account from unauthorized access with a strong password. A strong password should include uppercase, lowercase, symbols, and numbers.
Strong passwords can be generated and stored using a password manager. The tool can also manage all your passwords.
Beware of suspicious links
Avoiding links you don’t trust is another effective way to moderate malicious or illegal content you receive. Cybercriminals use links in phishing emails to lure you to dangerous sites where they can steal your information. They can impersonate popular brands or an acquaintance to make you think the email is from someone you trust.
If you receive emails like this, report the email to your service provider and block the sender immediately.
Enable multi-factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication adds another layer of security to your business emails beyond the usual OTP sent to your mobile phones or authenticator app. In the event that someone else gets access to your device, or you lose your phone, a combination of authentication methods would be required to prove your identity.
This is especially necessary in companies where losing sensitive information might cause the organization financial or reputational harm. Alternative multi-factor authentication methods to try include:
- Voice verification
- Smart cards
- OTP tokens
- OATH software tokens
Along with securing sensitive information, multi-factor authentication allows for organization-wide security measures.
An employee’s email account might be compromised and used to send out malware. Due to the multiple authentication measures in place, the chances of said file causing harm to the organization are greatly reduced.
Encrypt emails
Use an encrypted email service like DuoCircle to encrypt emails you send so they’re secure. This prevents bad actors from intercepting your emails when they’re in transit. It also stops sensitive information like financial records or trade secrets from falling into the wrong hands.
You can also use encryption to verify the recipient’s identity with private and public keys.
3. It filters malicious content
You can also moderate online content by filtering malicious content. This will help ensure identity theft protection, which is critical especially since you’re running a business.
Content moderation can also help protect you against data breaches that can lead to lost business and trust. You don’t want to be in a position where you have to put out fires with press releases or press conferences.
DuoCircle’s filtering solutions configure keywords that block harmful or offensive content. They screen for executable files that could install malware. They also filter incoming emails for ransomware and phishing attacks.
The solutions also protect you from spoofed domain names. You can create an ‘allow-list’ of email addresses, IP addresses, or domain names that you trust and can receive emails from. DuoCircle checks six reputation URL databases per click for real-time validation. Your users can be warned if they’re going to an unsafe website.
Integrating content filtering with multi-factor authentication, firewalls, and intrusion detection is a good way to ensure email security.
4. It helps ensure compliance
Many governments have stringent guidelines on regulatory compliance, and organizations must employ content moderation policies to comply. These guidelines help you protect your customers’ information in compliance with privacy laws.
For example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects patients’ medical information in the United States. Additionally, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European law that protects data privacy within the European Union and European Economic Area.
These laws require you to secure your customers’ information when you collect and process them. That means if their information is in your email, you must protect it, too.
In closing
Cybercriminals often use emails to launch their attacks. But with content moderation, you can minimize the occurrence of these incidents and protect your company.
Native email security solutions can help protect you but have limitations. Hackers are becoming savvier, and have found ways to go around these solutions.
So, if you want maximum protection, you need advanced email security solutions like DuoCircle. DuoCircle comes with a Link Click Protection that includes subscriptions to the most advanced outbreak protection feeds for real-time protection. It can help you uncover harmful content before it can spread, minimizing your risks.
Understanding the importance of content moderation in email security will help you avoid the headaches that information theft causes. Employ the tips discussed in this article and reap the best email security benefits.
James Westfield is the Marketing Manager for Writer, an AI writing platform designed for teams. He has over 10 years of experience in the industry. When James isn’t in the office, you can find him on the golf course.