Your corporate email is not only the primary form of business communication but also a prime target for cybercriminals. All it takes is one employee opening a corrupted email attachment to install malware on your entire company’s network and expose valuable business and client data.
In this article, ITConnexion outlines email server security best practices to help your company establish a robust enterprise email protection plan. ITConnexion is a leading managed services provider (MSP) in Melbourne that offers cybersecurity technology and IT solutions for enterprise data protection. By following these email security basics, you can keep your email server safe from phishing attempts and malicious attachments.
Develop an Email Server Security Policy
Your company should provide cybersecurity training for all of its employees and clients who use your email server. Enterprises and small businesses alike are equally at risk of an email-borne cyberattack, and it usually starts with one email to one person on the server.
Cybersecurity awareness training incorporates:
- Educating employees about what to do if they receive a suspicious email, i.e., do not open it and forward it to your IT manager instead.
- Stressing the importance of keeping business and personal emails separate and avoiding opening and sending company emails from their phones.
- Arming employees with an encrypted password management system to help them create and safely store complex passwords.
Encrypt Your Email Content
Encryption is a vital component of email security basics. Email encryption involves disguising (encrypting) an email’s content and attachments so that only the intended recipient can open the message on their device.
While most popular email servers like Gmail or Outlook offer email encryption, it typically does not provide enough protection to thwart every cyberattack. Enterprises looking for optimal email security should invest in an enterprise-grade email encryption solution to fully protect corporate data and ensure ease of use for employees.
Protect Your Server
Cutting-edge encryption software protects your email messages, but complete corporate email security should also involve server protection. A server stores and sends emails, so if a hacker compromises your server, they can send spam to your employees and access company data.
Your IT managed services provider can help secure your email servers by:
- Specifying a list of domains and IP addresses to which your employees can send and receive emails
- Using reverse DNS lookup to verify a sender before an email reaches an employee’s inbox
- Managing connections to reduce distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that interrupt the normal flow of email traffic.
Getting Started with Your Email Security Plan
Implementing the email security best practices outlined in this article will help protect your enterprise email server from cyberattacks. These tips only work if you and your employees diligently follow your cybersecurity policy and if your IT services provider proactively monitors your antivirus and data protection software to mitigate threats.
ITConnexion in Melbourne can help you get started with a threat assessment and cybersecurity action plan.
To set up a consultation with our enterprise IT experts, call ITConnexion on 1300 89 22 00.
