5 Email Security Best Practices and Tips for Employees

​Online security is something you know is important, but your IT team is not the only one responsible for cybersecurity. Everyone from front-line personnel to the CEO should assume accountability. They all need to do their part to keep the digital assets of your business protected because anything that happens to one user could quickly spread across your entire company.

One of the key cybersecurity areas in which to keep your employees informed is email—that’s where most breaches caused by employee actions tend to occur. To get you started in the process of educating your employees, here are 5 email security tips to pass along:

Beware Suspicious Emails

Never open attachments or click on links in an email unless you know exactly what they are. If you did not request a document, or ask to reset your password, don’t open the document and don’t click on the password reset link. Even when you receive an email from someone you know, if it’s not something you expected or looks funny, do not open it.

Keep Your Devices Up-to-Date with the Latest Patches

Anytime you receive a notice that fixes are waiting for you to install through the operating system update tools, do it as soon as you can. It’s better to take time to reboot in the middle of your day than wait until the end of the day.

Educate Yourself

Ask IT for advice for free online email safety resources to keep yourself informed on the latest email security tactics. In addition to your work email account, you will also learn about ways to protect your personal email accounts.

Pause When You Sense a Problem

Don’t let urgency keep you from taking a step back and looking carefully at the situation. Certain trap emails are common, and a quick online search for phrases you see in the subject line will let you know if it’s a scam.

Report anything suspicious you see

Let your IT team know! This will help them create security controls that prevent such emails from coming through in the first place.

And if you mistakenly click on something you should not have, report it immediately to IT. The faster you do so, the sooner they can contain and maybe even prevent any damage to your device and other systems on your company’s network.

Have Your Employees’ Backs

In addition to educating your employees, you also want to show them that you have their backs by deploying defense mechanisms to protect them from malicious emails. Start with an antivirus solution that uses AI, machine learning, and computer vision to identify patterns in text, images, and HTML codes that indicate potential lurking threats. The solution you choose should also scan for malicious links, infected PDFs, and embedded code (including scripts) that indicate malware is present.

Then deploy a SPAM filter to block suspicious emails before they hit your corporate mail server. It is much more efficient to block SPAM at the perimeter rather than let it get to internal defenses. The filter should block any messages that contain <.exe> or <.vbs> as well as any known ransomware extensions.

Also, add geo-filtering to prevent emails originating from suspicious countries. You can this set up by blacklisting unauthorized countries or blocking all countries besides your home country. You can also implement a whitelist of any email account you want to let through.

Lastly, prevent phishing emails from reaching end-users, and authenticate inbound email by using technologies like Sender Policy Framework (SPF), Domain Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC), and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM). These tools help prevent email spoofing and brand forgeries—where senders try to fool receivers into thinking emails are coming from a person or entity they know.

With a combination of educating employees and deploying the right email security tools, you’ll be sure to avoid the debilitating cyberattacks that can bring your business operations to a stand-still. And that’s peace-of-mind we can all use!

To learn more about protecting your email accounts and setting up cybersecurity training programs for your employees, contact PulseOne today.