How safe is your inbox?

How safe do you think your inbox is. Lets go and find out in this article.

Read on.....

Lexington, Ky. - E-mail has become a standard means of communication in the business world, enriching communication standards in numerous aspects. While this powerful communication tool has done wonders as far as streamlining communication, it comes with a number of security risks, including viruses, phishing attacks, and spam.

Viruses, many of which make their way into your computer network via e-mail, are the original computer threat and are being sculpted and programmed in new and changing ways every day. Viruses are actually small programs that are coded to execute malicious actions and replicate to other users on your network. The malicious actions can range from rendering your network resources unavailable to hijacking all the data stored on your file server –– and many virus containing e-mails require you to do nothing other than view the e-mail.

Phishing attacks are a very popular social engineering hack in the IT world, in which deceptive e-mails attempting to steal private information are sent to unaware recipients. The e-mails are designed to appear as though the sender is a genuine source, such as your employer or bank. In the e-mail, the phisher will often tailor the message to include personal details about you and contain a Web site link and request for private information for account verification purposes. The Web site you are directed to is actually a hacker-created, mirrored copy of the legitimate Web site and often even contains genuine SSL certificates. If any private information is entered into the hacked Web site, it is immediately compromised by the initiating phisher. For example, you receive an e-mail from eBay requesting validation of your account password by following the included link. When you click the link, the Web site looks legitimate, has a valid SSL certificate and thus you enter your password. You are returned with a message saying "Thank you, your password has been validated." Your eBay password has just been stolen via a phishing attack.

Spam is another threat increasing in power on a daily basis. Spam began as an annoyance but has matured into a legitimate resource thief and business threat. Notorious for stealing precious bandwidth, spam is the unsolicited e-mail sent to unwilling recipients, often with commercial substance. In addition to stealing crucial storage space, a heavily spammed e-mail server can consume nearly an entire dedicated internet link. Also, spam is the number one carrier for e-mail virus and worm attacks. Spam is indeed bothersome, but the business complications that result from it are far more significant.

With these security risks in mind, let's explore what can be done to protect your network and e-mail server from these risks.

Employee training is the most important part of any secure environment. Ensure that your e-mail users are aware of e-mail-associated risks and have a good idea of best practices. Educate users on how to identify phishing and spam e-mail; warn users on the dangers of e-mail attachments; encourage users to restrain from forwarding mass e-mails; don't allow the use of unencrypted wireless networks for business functions; prohibit the sharing of account usernames and password.

Ensure anti-virus protection is installed, updated regularly, and adequately configured for real time e-mail protection and regularly scheduled system scans. Furthermore, ensure adequate monitoring of anti-virus systems is in place, so you are aware whenever a virus is found.

Properly configure and manage the security settings in the standard e-mail client to properly handle and delete deemed spam or phishing e-mails. The fewer potentially dangerous e-mails your users see, the more secure your network.

Implement an appropriate spam filtering device along with an Intrusion Prevention System and Network Firewall to stop malicious e-mails from reaching your e-mail server, an appropriate update and monitoring procedure. With a properly configured setup, 99 percent of your spam can be stopped before ever reaching your e-mail server.

In business cases where foreign travel is often required, you should use phone communication as a primary means of communication rather than e-mail. In many foreign countries, all communications across data lines are monitored and any transmitted information is susceptible to a high chance of interception.

E-mail security is an important aspect to securing your network. This is a task that should be taken seriously by everyone within a business or group, not just the IT administration staff.