Email still happens to be one of the most common vectors by which enterprises are attacked. The importance of implementing email security best practices therefore cannot be overstated, especially as most enterprises rely heavily on this channel for everyday business communications. Cybercriminals can easily exploit the overlooked vulnerabilities of corporate email security through distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and phishing attacks, malware and ransomware, and employees’ mistakes.

According to the Mimecast State of Email Security 2021 Report, sixty percent of organizations stated that an email attack is inevitable or likely in the coming year.

Poor email security can cause data loss and downtime as well as leaks of confidential information about a company’s financials, intellectual property, employee and customer information. Losing control of such sensitive documents can also lead to loss in revenue and market share, fines and reputation damage. This is especially true for those in highly regulated industries such as finance, legal, publishing, education, and healthcare. 

Yet enterprises have still not developed a cyber resilience strategy that emphasizes email security. Specialized standalone email security solutions are available to combat each type of attack. But IT departments need comprehensive visibility and control over the enterprise’s overall email security strategy and defense. This is the only way they can make sure they’re protected against every possible type of attack.      

Here are four email security best practices to incorporate in your enterprise’s overall cyber security strategy.

Best practice #1 – Improve your endpoint and email security hygiene

Endpoint email security encompasses a variety of tools and processes that protect end-users’ devices from being compromised through email-delivered attacks. Employees can be targeted with phishing emails, spam and malware which if opened could infect their devices and provide gateways for hackers to access the entire enterprise network. 

To combat this, enterprises should install endpoint email security software in combination with anti-virus protection tools. These can filter and block malware or spam emails from suspicious senders and IP addresses and clean up infected systems from sending outbound spam.

Specifically, endpoint security software can confirm whether a device meets security policies before allowing it to access an organization’s network. Remote devices that haven’t updated their operating systems, have their firewall turned off, or have other specifically recognized security flaws are denied access so that outside threats to the network are mitigated.  

Email is also used by malicious actors to execute zero-day attacks that exploit previously unknown defects in software, hardware, or firmware. A basic countermeasure against this would require your IT team to upgrade and patch all endpoints on a regular basis. While this does not stop zero-day attacks entirely, it will reduce their chances of success or at least buy you more time until the relevant zero-day patch becomes available.

Another key component of endpoint protection involves implementing enterprise-wide policies on basic password and corporate email security best practices. For example, you can instruct employees to:

• Avoid storing passwords on paper notes and in public locations
• Avoid duplicating old passwords or those created on other sites
• Create strong passwords with characters (@) instead of alphanumeric letters (a)
• Use passwords that can’t be guessed by strangers (avoiding names, ages, birthdates, company, social media interests, etc.)

Two-factor authentication should also be mandated, or at least encouraged, for all employees whether through a mobile phone, an app on a device, or authentication tokens. 

It also helps to continuously train and test employees on email security best practices, including how to spot phishing emails, so they’re well prepared to avoid and report them. Some enterprises even deploy simulated phishing attacks to test their employees’ readiness.      

Best practice #2 – Safeguard your email content with encryption 

Fully protecting your email content requires that both the content and attachments are encrypted while in transit and at rest in the inbox. Popular email platforms like Gmail and Outlook typically don’t have the requisite enough enterprise-level email encryption to fully secure organizations against all cyber threats. And to the extent that these platforms do support encryption, they only work if both the sender and recipients have certain extensions enabled.

Third-party add-in encryption services can close these corporate email security gaps. But be aware that some of these encryption services can add significant friction to the user experience. Any encryption tool is only effective if users can easily make it a part of their regular workflow. So, carefully weigh your options by testing out their trial versions before making your final selection. With Digify’s Gmail and Outlook plug-ins, end-users can send encrypted emails and files directly in Gmail or Outlook without interrupting their workflow.

Document security solutions are also effective in preventing unauthorized access to your confidential information shared via email. These solutions work by giving you control over who gets to view, print, and download your documents. You can even revoke access to the recipient after sending your emails. Meanwhile, expiry settings, watermarks, screen capture protection, and tracking give you more control over keeping your sensitive documents in the right hands without leaking outside. These important document security capabilities should be a part of any third-party encryption service you choose.

Best practice #3 – Implement email server protection

It’s not just the email services that can be hacked but the servers used to store and send the email can also be compromised. Spam and DDoS attacks on these servers can disrupt regular email transfer and processing. They can also be used by hackers as a way to send spam email from your server, harming your reputation and getting you blacklisted.

This is why it is important to protect your email servers. Direct your IT team to enforce sound email server protection techniques, starting with: 

• Restricting the mail relay parameter by specifying a list of domains and IP addresses to which your mails can be safely forwarded  
• Limiting the number of connections to reduce the chance of spam and DDoS attacks
• Verifying the sender through reverse DNS lookup before accepting incoming messages   
• Use content filtering to fight spammers from accessing your server

It is important to work with your IT team to give them all the necessary information to help them secure your email servers. Separating real authentic emails from spam, phishing attacks and other threats early on can be instrumental in keeping your intellectual property and confidential company information secure.

Best practice #4 – Prevent data leakage and breaches

Confidential documents often share certain attributes. They may have similar keywords, data types or rules that can be used intelligently to spot these documents. Your enterprise can prevent the leakage of such sensitive data in emails by filtering, blocking, or censoring based on keywords, expressions, and rules. For example, your IT team can block all outgoing emails with personal information like social security numbers, credit card information, and files with the keyword “confidential” or “internal use only”. A good rule of thumb is to use encryption to protect outbound data while filtering inbound emails to block malware, viruses, and phishing threats.   

Data loss prevention (DLP) tools can be applied to prohibit sensitive information from spreading outside your enterprise by alerting your IT admin about violations of data access policies. This allows your IT team to proactively respond to issues instead of trying to repair the damage after a data leak has already occurred. Predictive technologies such as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly being used for real-time monitoring to detect unusual data patterns that can identify and impede data breaches.   

Without effective DLP tools, your enterprise is risking the unintended exposure of customer data that can result in identity theft, monetary fraud, and the loss of your business reputation. When customers and employees trust your organization enough to share their private data, you have a responsibility to protect it.  

Conclusion

With email being at the center of business communications for most enterprises, it is of paramount importance that this channel be secured. Implementing sound corporate email security best practices can help stave off attacks and data breaches. This is key to building trust in your organization’s operations, employees and with your customers.

Adding a third-party integrated email security solution like Digify with compliant document security can ensure that the information you share via email is protected against unauthorized access, download, and misuse. Digify not only encrypts your email content and attachments but also allows you to control access to your files even after sending them. You can view when your attachments are opened by recipients, how long they’re viewed, and if your document is downloaded or printed. Plus, you can configure encrypted messages and attachments to automatically expire after a certain amount of time. Digify uses the AES-256 algorithm to encrypt emails and files, which is certified for top-secret documents. 
Your enterprise doesn’t have to sacrifice seamless collaboration to securely communicate confidential business information. See if Digify’s Gmail and Outlook plugins meet your enterprise’s needs by taking advantage of a free trial today.

Although G Suite’s email platform Gmail offers email encryption services, it isn’t always as secure as you might think. This is because Gmail relies on S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) to support encryption and it can only work if both the sender and recipient have it enabled.

This means if you email a recipient who uses another email platform that doesn’t use S/MIME you may not be protected. In 2013, cybercriminals gained access to sensitive customer information by hacking 3 billion Yahoo email accounts. Fortunately, with third-party services, you can ensure that your Gmail email messages and attachments are always completely secure.

How to fully encrypt Gmail attachments    

In addition to protecting sensitive email messages, many don’t consider that the most sensitive information in an email is often stored in attachments. 

Using end-to-end encryption is the only way to make sure that your email messages and Gmail attachments are entirely secure. With this method, your emails are encrypted while sitting at rest in an inbox and in transit to your recipient.

Google has discussed adding end-to-end encryption to Gmail for quite a while but unfortunately has not delivered as of yet. Meanwhile, third-party services are stepping up to fill the gap with encryption extensions and applications. 

But many of these third-party options add significant friction to email use for both the sender and recipient. If not designed with the user experience in mind, email encryption can be difficult to use, can require extra steps to read an email, and slow down the entire email process.  

With Digify’s Gmail encryption extension, you can easily encrypt Gmail attachments and messages without your recipient having to be subscribed to the platform or manually giving them a password. 

How to use Digify to encrypt Gmail attachments  

Without changing your workflow, you can have complete control over your Gmail attachments by sending an encrypted email directly within Gmail. You can also choose if recipients can download or print your attached document and even revoke access to the file anytime after emailing it. When your recipient receives your encrypted Gmail attachment, all they have to do is click on the document link in your email. You can then choose if you want the recipient to verify their email address or not and a code will automatically be sent to them to open the attachment.  

It only requires five easy steps to get started with Digify’s Gmail encryption extension:

1. Download the Digify extension on the Chrome web store
2. Compose your email message in Gmail
3. Attach your document to your email using the Digify extension
4. Customize your security settings according to your preferences:
   • Add recipients who should receive access
   • Set permissions for printing and downloading your attached file
   • Choose whether to add a personalized watermark for tracking and identification
   • Select the date and time when the document will automatically expire
5. Insert your Gmail attachment as a link in your email and send 

You can also watch the video demo below to see how to encrypt a Gmail attachment with Digify: 

Advanced file encryption you can rely on

To encrypt Gmail attachments, Digify uses the AES-256 encryption algorithm that is certified by the National Security Administration (NSA) for top-secret documents. Asymmetric encryption systems (AES) secure data with a public key that can only be decrypted by the intended recipient who has the correct private key.

This makes asymmetric encryption better at securing data in transit because the sender doesn’t need to know the recipient’s private key. AES is considered the most secure symmetric key encryption cipher currently available. 

Digify also encrypts data using envelope encryption, which uses a data encryption key (DEK) and then encrypts the DEK with a root key. The main benefit of envelope encryption is that when you encrypt a data key, you don’t have to stress about where to store it because the data key is protected by encryption. So, the encrypted key can be safely stored with the encrypted data.

How to track encrypted Gmail attachments

As well as securely encrypting your Gmail attachment with Digify, you can track your document to view when it’s opened, printed, and forwarded without leaving your Gmail inbox. You can see if your recipient has viewed your attachment, for how long, and if they’ve downloaded or printed your file.

And you can set up your file to automatically expire after a set amount of time. This way you never have to risk your confidential information being exposed to the wrong person. You can even revoke access after the Gmail attachment has been sent to your recipient by simply clicking a toggle switch.

Conclusion

Data breaches related to emails and attachments exponentially increase every year. This is especially frightening because email remains the most popular business communication method, which puts millions of companies at risk of both reputational and financial loss. 

Businesses send contracts, presentations, and many other types of sensitive documents through email every day. And once you send an email you lose control over the attached files. Often you don’t even know if it was opened by your recipient.   

The good news is that email encryption solutions like Digify can strengthen your email security against breaches. Now your business can have complete oversight of who has access to your Gmail attachments without sacrificing seamless usability and collaboration.  

But you don’t have to take our word for it. Start a free trial of Digify’s Gmail encryption extension to see for yourself how easy it is to send encrypted Gmail attachments to anywhere and anyone you want worry-free.

Mishandling sensitive information can also result in fines and other penalties for those in industries such as finance, legal, publishing, education, and healthcare that have to comply with data protection laws like HIPAA or GDPR. 

With cybersecurity challenges on the rise, email encryption is the industry standard for data protection. Whether you need to send a document password with colleagues or negotiate a confidential client deal, it’s essential to deploy the best Outlook email encryption available to ensure you’re truly safeguarded. 

How to send a fully encrypted email in Outlook 

Microsoft Outlook’s email encryption services aren’t as secure as you may believe. This is because Outlook encrypts email using S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) and Office 365 message encryption, which both rely on the sender and recipient having it enabled.

You may not be protected when emailing a recipient who uses an email platform that doesn’t support S/MIME or Office 365 message encryption. Free webmail users such as clients on Gmail, Yahoo, and iCloud often won’t have the functionality needed for robust email encryption.

In 2019, cyber criminals hacked webmail client Outlook.com and gained access to sensitive private information, including email subject lines, folder names, contact lists, and some email content. Using end-to-end encryption is the only way to make sure that your Outlook email messages and attachments are entirely secure, both while in transit to your recipient and sitting at rest in an inbox.

Using third-party add-in email encryption services

To ensure that your emails and attachments are completely secure, your company can switch to a separate encryption email provider. But in this case  you would lose all the functionality of Outlook you’ve come to rely on. 

Instead of hassling with changing email platforms, another more convenient solution is to add a third-party add-in encryption service to Outlook. But you’ll want to make sure you choose a service that doesn’t add significant friction to the email process for both the sender and recipient. 

Email encryption without a streamlined user experience can require extra inconvenient steps just to send and read an email making it difficult to use. If this is the case, it won’t be consistently applied by employees and others in your organization.  

When you install Digify’s Outlook encryption add-in, sending secure Outlook emails and attachments is easy. 

How to use Digify to encrypt emails and attachments  

With Digify’s Outlook encryption add-in, you can encrypt your emails* and attachments without changing your workflow or leaving your inbox. You also don’t have to manually give your recipient a password or have them subscribe to the platform. 

Control access to your email attachment anytime after sending it and choose if your recipient can download or print it. Add a watermark and set your document to self destruct after a specific amount of time. You can also see how many times your document was viewed and for how long. 

To get started with Digify’s Outlook encryption add-in follow these five simple steps:

1. Download the Digify Outlook encryption add-in here.
2. Compose your email message in Digify’s Outlook add-in
3. Attach your document to your email using the add-in
4. Customize the following your security settings:
   • Access Control: Add recipients who should receive access
   • Permissions: Set permissions for printing and downloading your attached document
   • Watermarking: Choose whether to include a personalized watermark for identification and tracking
   • Expiry: Select the date and time when the attached document will automatically expire
5. Insert your Outlook attachment as a link in your email and send 

Watch the video demo below to learn how to send an encrypted email in outlook.

To encrypt Outlook email messages and attachments, Digify uses the AES-256 encryption algorithm that is certified by the National Security Administration (NSA) for top-secret documents.

How your recipient opens your encrypted Outlook email and attachments

When your recipient receives your encrypted email attachment, all they have to do is click on the attachment link within the email. Your Outlook email attachment can then be viewed via a secure Digify link.

You can also select if you want the recipient to verify their email address to open the attached document. When you choose this option, a code is automatically created and sent to your recipient so they can open the attachment.  

How to track encrypted Outlook emails and attachments

As the most popular business communication method, organizations rely on email to send sensitive documents such as contracts, presentations, and many other types of files. Once you send an email you have to guess where your attached documents end up and if they were even opened by your recipient.  

As well as securely encrypting your Microsoft Outlook emails and attachments with Digify, you can track your email and attached document to view when they’re opened, printed, and forwarded all from your inbox.

You can see when your recipient opened your email and attachment, how long they viewed them, and if they downloaded or printed your document. After a set amount of time, you can configure your email and attachment to automatically expire.

This way you never have to risk your confidential information being exposed to the wrong person or organization. Simply click a toggle switch to revoke access after the Outlook email and attachment has been sent to your recipient.

Conclusion

Data breaches disclosed 4.1 billion records in the first six months of 2019. Even though data breaches are becoming more common every year, many companies are not prepared to prevent and combat them, thereby putting themselves needlessly at risk of both reputation and financial loss.

Fortunately, you can boost your email security against breaches with email encryption solutions like Digify. Now you can regain control of who has access to your Outlook emails and attachments without sacrificing seamless collaboration.  

See how easy it is to safely send encrypted Outlook emails and attachments to anywhere and anyone you want with a free trial of Digify’s Outlook email encryption add-in.