Web & Mail security

The race towards digitalisation—its importance became even clearer during the COVID-19 crisis. Remote working accelerated rapidly as many employees were forced to work from home. As a result, organisations had to structurally adapt their remote working policies, leading to increased use of web and mail environments from afar. And with that, the importance of security has grown.

These collaboration platforms often involve the addition of numerous peripheral applications to the IT landscape. The result? An unmanageable environment where data is scattered across multiple systems. With this rise in fragmented data and widespread application use—combined with extensive remote working—security, management and maintenance have become more critical than ever. So how do you secure the most vital and frequently used segments of your organisation: your web and mail environments? A well-structured and manageable network environment offers greater efficiency, ease of use, availability—and security.

Advanced login with easy access to data

A web application firewall is suitable for organisations that offer applications to external users. The login options for these applications can be an easy entry point for hackers to access business-critical information.

Every time your web application is used, vulnerabilities may arise. Even if you’ve identified these weaknesses in time, it can take weeks to resolve them. During this period, your data remains exposed to hackers and attacks. To protect your sensitive data, you can secure your web application with a web application firewall.

For all websites with login functionality, you can implement such a firewall. Using machine learning and application identification, the firewall detects what behaviour is normal or abnormal—and takes immediate action against potential threats. This enables advanced login functionality while still allowing authorised users easy access to the right data.

Phishing, ransomware and fraud

Phishing is a well-known form of email-based digital fraud. Phishing emails often appear as legitimate files or links, luring victims to fake websites where they’re tricked into revealing bank or login credentials. A cunning way to extract money from unsuspecting individuals.

Ransomware is another major threat to businesses—a type of malware that blocks your computer or encrypts files. Only after paying a ransom can you regain access to your system or data.

The top three wouldn’t be complete without CEO fraud. In this case, a finance employee receives an email from the CEO or CFO requesting a transfer to a foreign account. Criminals first identify the email addresses of both the CEO and the finance employee. The distance between the two roles is often so great that the finance employee doesn’t dare question the request.

Mail security – Scanning good and bad email content

Looking for strong protection against email fraud? A Secure Email Gateway (SEG) is the answer. An SEG offers a wide range of features to protect and secure all incoming and outgoing email traffic. This is especially important now that organisations are moving from on-premise email servers to cloud providers, whose default security is often inadequate. At the heart of every SEG is a Message Transfer Agent (MTA), or API-based integration. This scans all incoming emails and establishes a clear policy. It forms the basis for content analysis, anti-spam and anti-malware capabilities, and customises controls for managing end-user messages.

To reduce threats from outgoing emails, SEGs include features for data loss prevention (DLP), message archiving and encryption. This is particularly crucial for clients in regulated sectors such as finance or healthcare. Finally, users are increasingly opting for providers that offer a cloud-ready version of SEG as a Software as a Service solution.
 

Want more information on securing your organisation? Download our Security Wheel e-book. Create optimal security for your IT infrastructure with the 12 steps of the Security Wheel.