Common email security headaches and how to avoid them
Email is still the fastest, most effective, and widely used method of business communication today. Businesses continue to use it to communicate across the globe in a matter of seconds and connect with professionals in virtually any location, opening up a world of opportunity and possibility. But along with this opportunity comes risk. As an organization’s geographic distribution expands and they begin to rely on an ever increasing spectrum of business applications, the greater the security threat becomes.
As a professional in charge of the security of your corporation’s communications,
your job is to protect your company from email security threats by choosing an
effective defense. When it comes to email security solutions today, the options
appear to be limitless. There are a staggering number of products on the market
that promise to solve just about every corporate email security concern through
features like anti-spam protection, anti-virus capability, zero-hour detection, and
in some cases, advanced threat remediation options.
A close inspection of all the product options reveals that many are virtually
identical, and it is difficult to determine what sets one solution apart from all the
others. In addition to the standard features and services each solution offers,
some companies promote features that do not seem to directly relate to email
security issues. It is challenging to know which details and features are necessary
and which are just extras.
Before choosing an email security solution that will be the most appropriate and
effective option, you must be aware of all the challenges facing your company
with regard to securing email. The problem is that the security risks you face are
growing and changing just as fast as your company. New threats are developing
every day, and you need a solution that can adapt and defend effectively.
This white paper will present several common email security threat scenarios
businesses face today. It will also discuss why the most effective solution should
be flexible enough to adapt to your company’s evolving needs. Finally, it will
present PineApp Mail Secure as an ideal solution for both enterprises and small
and medium-sized businesses.
The problem
Every business needs email security. Just about every product out there offers,
at the very least, functional anti-spam and anti-virus solutions, but this is not
enough. Many modern businesses are increasing their reach geographically
and opening communication in every direction. There are employees working
from home, business being conducted remotely, and national and global
partners thousands of miles away. In between these long distance
communicators are countless cybercriminals, government spying programs, and
security threats using more than just spam and viruses to exploit vulnerabilities
and steal your data.
Companies are conducting business using a variety of technology and
applications, not all of which are easily compatible with each other. When you
open up communication with other companies your strategies may not always
sync up in a way that promotes secure email. Each business chooses email
solutions, such as Office 365, according to its unique needs. Even if you think you
have a secure plan in place, you cannot say the same for those on the other side
of your communication. Data leakage has become an ever-present threat.
Within your own company there are probably numerous applications working
side by side with your email, and these can also create incompatibilities and
cause potential vulnerabilities in your security. One of the biggest changes
sweeping the business world today is cloud technology. More and more
companies are shifting their IT infrastructure and business applications to the
cloud, which creates a whole new set of security concerns to address. You may
be working solely with local hardware, entirely in the cloud, or using a
combination of hardware and virtual platforms according to your business
needs.
What you need is an email security solution that can adapt quickly to your
changing business environment and grow with your needs to keep you
protected no matter what direction your business moves in next. Your email
security solution should be able to protect on- and off-site resources and
manage compliance and regulatory requirements should they be necessary. You
need something much more than just a run-of-the-mill email security solution.
The solution
Email programs like Office 365 protect against basic threats that come along
with email, but security is not their focus. You need to put supplemental security
and services in place which will keep your information safe in the face of more
severe threats. This is where those seemingly extraneous features offered by
some of the more capable email security solutions come in handy.
At first it may seem like large file transfer, email encryption, email archiving, and
responsive customer service are outside the realm of necessary email protection.
When you explore the problem more closely you will see that these features are
actually vital components to a comprehensive messaging solution for your
business. What they do is expand the capabilities of your business itself,
providing effective and secure Web portals for collaboration, protecting your
outgoing messages, preventing you from exposing your business to the dangers
of third-party archiving storage, and make troubleshooting in the event of a
problem a simpler and less stressful process for your IT department.
These additional features give an email security solution the flexibility it needs to
adapt as your company grows and changes. With these security precautions
working in sync your professional communication will be guarded from every
side possible, on premises and in the cloud, and your business processes will be
streamlined to promote growth.
Common security challenges and solutions
The business world is filled with many different kinds of companies, but when it
comes to email security they all face similar challenges. Furthermore, most
companies suffer from the same inadequate solutions that cause frustration,
complication, and extra cost. The following scenarios are examples of a few
common communication security problems that plague professionals today,
along with the solutions generally offered by a commonplace security solution.
Each is followed up with details of all that a comprehensive security strategy can
offer in safety and service.
Scenario one
It is common for businesses to work out of a number of locations across the
country and around the world. For example, a business may have one office
location in San Francisco and another one in New York. Collaboration between
the offices is imperative to successful operations, and a large number of emails
are sent back and forth on a regular basis. In these emails, employees often share
files to get pertinent information, forms and other business data in the hands of
those who need it. Sometimes, however, those files are too large to be attached
in an email.
That is the problem facing a San Francisco executive in this scenario. She wants
to send a large file to a colleague in the New York office, but internal company
policy restricts the size of files that can be attached to emails. She needs a way
to send her oversized file to New York that is at least as fast as email, while still
being secure and compliant with company policy.
How it works now: If her company is like many today and does not have an
effective, comprehensive communication solution, then she will have to rely on
a third party option. The standard today is to have separate services for email,
security, file sharing, and more, which means the executive has to take extra
steps in order to complete her communication. She will have to open a different
program outside of her email portal, upload the file, and then rely on someone
else to send it where it needs to go.
A separate file transfer application has to be deployed across the whole
company, and that means installing it and teaching everyone to use it. In
addition, third party services can be a major security risk, as well as a problem in
terms of compliance requirements. She is trusting the safety and privacy of her
corporate information to people, equipment, and security outside of her control.
Basically, the third party solution strategy comes with extra cost, extra risk, and
extra complications that she does not need.
How it should work: If our San Francisco executive’s company employed a
comprehensive security solution, the whole problem would cease to exist.
Effective email security should include large file transfer features that allow users
to use the same Web portal they already use for other email management tasks,
like white lists, black lists, and releasing email. The San Francisco executive could
simply upload the file and send it directly and securely to her New York
colleague. No need to run multiple applications and have a stack of windows
open on her computer. She can keep things simple and efficient.
Her large files will have the same security protections as her email system even
though they are not being sent via email. This type of solution should be entirely
customizable, allowing for unique configuration to comply with applicable
company policies as well as industry regulatory requirements. This will reduce
her compliance concerns and provide more uniformity for her business
processes. Additionally, she will not have to create yet another account and
password for another service, and she will not be adding to her operations costs.
PineApp Mail Secure includes the Big Email Data Module, which
lets users get around file size limits on email attachments. Large
files can be sent and received securely — and will be available for
as long as the sender indicates.
Scenario two
Regulatory compliance often requires companies to keep old data for a certain
period of time. Email is a part of this data, and it can take up quite a bit of
storage space. In an effort to reduce storage costs and hassle, an increasing
number of companies are moving their email servers into the cloud. While this
certainly does expand the storage capabilities and relieve stress on company
hardware, it opens businesses up to increased risk of data leakage and theft. The
business in this scenario needs to keep years of email data in order to meet
company regulations. Not only must the archiving solution be compliant, but it
must also be searchable and make it easy to respond to any litigation requests.
How it works now: Cloud-based email services like Office 365 are common
email options used by businesses, and most email security solutions
complement them to a certain extent. But when it comes to the extras like
archiving, companies have to look outside of their existing solution to a third
party provider in order to prevent journaling issues and complications. In fact,
many businesses have a collection of third party vendors for each different
service they need, cluttering up their processes and opening them up to
incompatibility and security risks.
Working with numerous vendors to get the combination of services necessary
can be expensive and frustrating. There can be little uniformity and consistency
with professional processes because everything requires a different program
and different steps. The business in this scenario needs archiving capability, but
it does not need the added cost, frustration, and complication. Plus, the more
separate parties there are with access to sensitive information, the higher the risk
is of data leaks and threat exposure. This company does need increased
archiving space and capabilities, but it does not need to rely on someone else to
keep the archived mail and attachments secure.
How it should work: What the company in this scenario needs is a security
solution that not only includes archiving, but can also integrate seamlessly with a
cloud email solution like Office 365. A security solution that can work compatibly
with cloud email prevents problems with user experience, so everyone can
manage all of their email features like journaling in a single, central program.
Even better, now the business does not have to rely on yet another outside
party to store and protect archived emails and attachments.
Keeping that archived data secure is now a greatly simplified process, because
the archive functionality is tied to the existing security solution. The data will be
stored within company databases, and protected by company security
measures. There will be no need to worry about compliance issues, as
everything can be tailored to suit the unique requirements of any business.
PineApp Mail Secure’s Archiving Module lets employees easily
store, search and retrieve emails. It reduces the stress of
complying with regulatory requirements while completely
integrating with cloud-based email systems like Office 365.
Scenario three
No matter how great an email security solution is, it is bound to have issues
sooner or later. Cybercriminals come up with devious new methods for stealing
information every day, and keeping up is a true challenge. Suppose a spear
phishing attack occurs, and an internal IT technician is on the case. She has
tracked in the solution reports, but has encountered an issue that requires
additional information. The IT technician needs to call customer service for the
security system, and she needs feedback and advice quickly in order to
remediate.
How it works now: If our IT technician’s company is like many today, then this
phone call for assistance is not going to go well or be very helpful. The customer
service attached to many email security solutions today is less than satisfactory.
Our technician makes the phone call and is immediately put on hold. Not just
for a minute or two, but an obscene amount of waiting time. This is definitely
not conducive to solving the spear phishing problem as quickly as possible.
When the technician finally reaches a person, he is a “tier 1” or entry level call
service representative. This person has limited, if any, experience in the industry.
His ability to engage on challenging technical questions is low. As a result, our
technician’s call will have to be escalated to someone with more knowledge and
experience. So our technician is put on hold yet again to wait for another
frustrating amount of time until the next person can be reached. This person
hopefully has the answers she needs, but more than likely not. She will be stuck
in the escalation chain on hold for quite some time, and she may never get the
answers she is looking for.
This is unacceptable customer service, but it is pretty standard for the industry of
email security solutions. Every interaction is an arduous climb upward through
layer upon layer of customer service in hopes of getting a helpful response. It
adds more work to the already difficult job of keeping corporate email safe and
secure, and that does not help anyone in the end.
How it should work: If this IT technician worked for a company employing
an effective and comprehensive email security solution, her job would be much
simpler and more pleasant. Her phone call would have been taken by someone
sitting at the help desk of the corporate headquarters. The first person she spoke
to would be a qualified support engineer with deep customer service
experience and a commitment to remediation and excellent service that is
shared by all of his colleagues company-wide. He would be able to answer all of
her questions in a timely fashion and help her get everything back on track.
Her needs would be a central force of the organization’s technical priorities. This
call center would not be an afterthought type of service, but rather one of the
most important services offered. The mark of a quality email security solution is
its ability to offer an excellent customer experience at every level. Any company
working with a lesser solution is only making its employees jobs more difficult,
and jeopardizing the security of its information.
Cybonet’s help desk is in the same hall as the CEO’s office and the
R&D department. The CEO established the help desk and
managed it personally for several years to guarantee the highest
quality service and standards. PineApp Mail Secure users can be
assured that they are in good hands with Cybonet’s customer
service.
Get the best email security solution around
As you can see, email security is more involved than simply preventing spam
and phishing attacks. It is about centrally managing your professional
communication in a way that protects your interests and improves your business
processes. You need a shield that can stretch and grow with your company to
cover new vulnerabilities as they arise. Your email security should not only
protect your business, but help it grow and develop. That is where Cybonet
stands head and shoulders above every solution out there.
Cybonet is built upon a deep understanding of secure communication, and our
platform addresses a broad spectrum of the needs that so often arise in the
modern environment of business. From compliance concerns to encrypting
information, both incoming and outgoing, we have the experience and tools
that you need to guard your business against security threats from the inside
out. Even better, we are 100 percent dedicated to your satisfaction. You will not
deal with unskilled help desk jockeys and agonizing customer service wait times.
When you need answers, we will give them to you as quickly and effectively as
possible.
An email security solution capable of defense on multiple fronts must offer
centralized management and protection of all email-related activity, from
message contents and attachments, storage and retrieval of archived messages,
and additional functionalities like email branding, through to online
collaboration and large-file transfer activities. The solution that can cover all
those requirements is the one that differentiates itself most clearly from the rest.