Email protection is a security solution designed to secure internal communication, prevent data loss, and protect financial or personal information. It also safeguards an organisation’s entire supply chain. As email-borne threats like phishing and ransomware attacks grow—currently, 3.4 billion phishing emails are sent daily—implementing strong email security solutions has become critical. This number is expected to rise further in the coming years, increasing the need for comprehensive defences.
What Does Email Protection Do?
Email protection services offer advanced threat detection to guard against phishing, ransomware, spam, malware, and brand impersonation. These email security solutions use a multi-faceted approach, including employee Security Awareness Testing & Training, technology tools like DMARC, and real-time threat monitoring. Advanced threat intelligence and machine learning scans identify potential threats earlier, stopping email-borne attacks before they spread and cause greater damage.
Additionally, email security services automatically neutralise threats and initiate incident response protocols to quickly contain breaches, minimising damage and reducing overall security risks.
Why Do You Need Email Protection?
Given the widespread use of email in daily business operations, it is frequently targeted by cybercriminals as an entry point for attacks. A successful email attack can lead to data loss, compromise financial assets, and harm brand reputation. An email protection solution ensures the safety of:
- Supply chains, preventing cyber threats from disrupting business operations.
- Financial assets by blocking phishing and ransomware attacks.
- Brand reputation by preventing impersonation attempts.
- Sensitive network data and company information.
- Employees from becoming victims of email-based attacks.
By using encryption, advanced threat detection, incident response, and protection, email security solutions help organisations reduce security risks and maintain a strong cybersecurity posture.
Email is the most attacked threat surface. Phishing and spoofing are usually the entry point of today’s email-initiated breaches.
It’s tempting to rely on an email malware filtering tool for all your email protection needs. But it’s not enough. Standalone malware filtering won’t defend against today’s attacks.
Phishing and spoofing attacks use social engineering to persuade your colleagues to give away confidential information or visit a malicious website. The email won’t always contain malware and so it can’t be picked up by malware filtering.
Every week there’s a new announcement of the latest ransomware attack where the breach was made via email. These attacks are too common and too damaging for you to rely on simple malware filtering tools alone.
Contact us today to discuss your needs
Ransomware
Ransomware remains a significant and growing cyber threat. In 2024 alone, over 3,600 ransomware attacks were publicly reported, though many go unreported, with SMEs increasingly becoming targets. Due to limited cyber security resources, small and medium-sized enterprises are highly vulnerable, often serving as entry points for cyber criminals to target larger organisations through supply chains. The financial impact of ransomware can be substantial, depending on factors like the type of data compromised, regulatory fines, lost productivity, and reputational damage. The average ransom demand rose to £4.1 million in early 2024, fuelled by the rise of Ransomware as a Service (RaaS), making ransomware attacks more accessible to hackers with minimal technical skills. The use of RaaS complicates attribution and mitigation, as it separates developers from those executing attacks, creating a resilient network that can easily adapt. Common vulnerabilities, such as unpatched systems and user behaviour, serve as entry points for attackers, highlighting the importance of strong security measures. In this high-risk environment, effective protection strategies will increasingly outweigh reactive measures like insurance, as these only address the aftermath rather than preventing breaches.
Phishing
Phishing continues to be one of the most widespread and costly cyber threats, with methods becoming increasingly sophisticated. Cyber criminals are now using commercial phishing toolkits, which often target identity and credential information, accounting for 80% of phishing incidents.
One particularly dangerous technique, known as adversary-in-the-middle (AitM), allows attackers to intercept communications between users and legitimate websites. This bypasses traditional defences like Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR), enabling attackers to capture login credentials and other sensitive data. Emerging phishing methods, such as quishing (QR codes with malware), smishing (SMS-based phishing), and vishing (video call scams), further exploit user trust, especially with sensitive data stored on personal devices.
Types of attacks
Email phishing attacks aim to trick people into giving away sensitive data or other actions that will benefit the cyber-criminal. These emails are sent to thousands of recipients and cause harm to the companies and individuals who unwittingly do as the criminal’s tell them.
Your email malware tool only works on company emails. It doesn’t scan the personal email platforms used by your staff. This means any staff checking their personal email on a work computer will be completely unprotected. As much as we might like staff not to do this, we know they do and so we know we need to deal with it.
Your ‘human firewall’ will be either your strongest or weakest defence against phishing attacks. That’s why you need to train your colleagues to be savvy emailers and help them to help you keep the company safe.
Email Protection from Red Helix supports you by regularly testing your workforce’s cyber awareness, identifying knowledge gaps, and giving the online training needed to improve cyber vigilance and improve your human firewall.
Email spoofing attacks target individuals by credibly posing as someone they trust, like a client, colleague, or supplier. They ask them to take action that they might not question or confirm by other means. This can have devastating consequences and will easily bypass your email malware tool.
Email security and convenience
Addressing email security needs used to be quick easy with an annual subscription to your email malware filtering tool. But the threat landscape has moved on and so should you.
We know that finding and running tools for today’s layered email protection needs takes time and resource. Our Security Team takes away this pain and provides you with a robust email security strategy that’s convenient, whilst adapting to the ever-changing email threat landscape.
To identify where your email may lack sufficient security measures, we are offering a free Digital Exposure and Risk Review, which are our high-level assessments of your publicly available digital assets, highlighting gaps in your security that are visible to all.
Contact us today to discuss and we will be delighted to explain how we can secure your emails to help you protect your colleagues and company.
Email Protection for Businesses
Email remains a primary target for cyber attacks, with threats like phishing, Business Email Compromise (BEC), and malware posing significant risks to organisations. Effective email protection strategies are essential to safeguard sensitive data, maintain business continuity, and protect employees from falling victim to sophisticated scams. Key practices for email security include implementing advanced threat detection tools that use artificial intelligence to identify suspicious patterns, such as impersonation attempts or abnormal login behaviour. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) should be mandatory for accessing email accounts to prevent unauthorised access, even if credentials are compromised.
Email security solutions should be implemented as prevention methods, providing spam filtering, malware protection, encryption, and more. Robust email filtering systems can detect and quarantine malicious attachments, links, or spoofed emails. Additionally, Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) protocols can be configured to prevent email spoofing by verifying sender authenticity.
Email Protection Best Practises
Robust email protection is essential for safeguarding sensitive data and ensuring business continuity. Here are best practices to strengthen email security:
- Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Require MFA for email account access to add a layer of protection against credential compromise. This ensures that even if a password is stolen, MFA can prevent unauthorised user access.
- Adopt DMARC, SPF, and DKIM Protocols
Configuring email authentication protocols validates the email senders. These include Sender Policy Framework (SPF), and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM.
- Restrict Access and Privileges
Limit who can send or approve sensitive transactions via email. Implement least privilege access, ensuring only necessary users have rights to critical accounts or information.
- Provide Regular Employee Training
Educate employees about email-based threats, such as phishing and social engineering. Conduct simulated phishing exercises to improve awareness and encourage users to verify suspicious requests.
- Monitor and Respond to Anomalies
Regularly monitor email systems for unusual activity, such as logins from unfamiliar locations or bulk forwarding rules. Quickly respond to incidents by revoking access or isolating compromised accounts.
- Update and Patch Email Systems
Keep email servers and security tools up-to-date to protect against vulnerabilities. Regular patches ensure defences are equipped to counter the latest threats.
- Back Up Emails Regularly
Implement a secure backup solution for email systems to prevent data loss in case of attacks like ransomware.
- Embed strong password policies
Require employees to create passwords with a minimum of 12 characters, including uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. These should be updated regularly. Additionally, the use of password managers to securely store and manage complex passwords.
Support
Let us enhance your security by combining market leading security awareness training with inbox threat protection:
Our service is ideal for organisations that want to manage their security training and testing, while taking their inbox protection to the next level. Our team of experts are available to help you setup and provide ongoing support.
We will:
- Support to help you setup up the service. Including, but is not limited to:
- Configuration changes required to support the service.
- Schedule Phishing Simulations and training
- Help to setup rules to catch and remove sophisticated phishing attacks.
- Ongoing support for Security Awareness and Training service.
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