Email Security For Small Businesses - 10 Proactive Tips!

Before we dive into email security for small businesses, let's first understand what it is. By learning about the key parts of security, small businesses can see why it's so important to protect their messages and stay prepared for new and common email security threats.

What Is Email Security?

It's about protecting your account and messages from bad actors and ensuring they stay private and safe. This involves using various methods and technologies to make sure your messages are safe from being hacked, lost, or misused. Here's what security does in simpler terms:

Security Key Parts

1. Making sure only the right people can access your messages - the intended sender and recipient.
2. Keeping your content private by encrypting the content so that only the person you sent it to can read it.
3. Blocking unwanted and dangerous emails using filters to stop spam & phishing from reaching your inbox.
4. Protecting against viruses and malware, scanning emails and attachments to prevent infections.
5. Preventing sensitive information leaks by making sure important data doesn’t get sent out accidentally or intentionally to unauthorized people.
6. Controlling who can do what by setting permissions for who can access or send certain types of emails.

Common Email Security Threats

Here are some key statistics that show the need for email security for small businesses.

10 Best Practices to Secure Business Emails

By following these best practice tips, your small business can significantly enhance its security posture, protecting sensitive information.

1. Use Strong Passwords:
   • Implement a password policy that enforces strong, unique passwords for all accounts.
2. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA):
   • Configure MFA for accessing email accounts to add an extra layer of security.
3. Keep Software Updated:
   • Update email clients, OS, and antivirus (AV) software regularly to protect against vulnerabilities.
4. Use Spam Filters:
   • Install a robust spam filters to automatically detect and block phishing attempts and malicious emails.
5. Restrict Access:
   • Use Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to manage permissions and ensure employees have the minimum necessary access.
6. Implement Policy for Secure Business Emails:
   • Develop and enforce policies for handling sensitive information, including guidelines for when and how to use email for sharing confidential data to protect users from common email security threats.
7. Secure Transmission:
   • Ensure that email clients are configured to use SSL/TLS encryption for sending and receiving messages.
8. Configure Domain Protection:
   • Set up SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) to protect your domain from being spoofed.
9. Leverage Cloud Services:
   • Consider using secure cloud-based email services like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, which offer built-in security features and regular updates.
10. Secure Mobile Devices:
    • Ensure that any mobile devices used to access business messages are secured with passwords, encryption, and up-to-date security software.

Email Security for Small Businesses

Here are 5 highly regarded security products to secure business emails.

1. Mimecast - Comprehensive email security, including spam filtering, phishing protection, encryption, & DLP.
2. Proofpoint Essentials - Advanced threat, spam & phishing protection, encryption, & data loss prevention.
3. Barracuda Email Security Service - Spam and virus protection, advanced threat detection, email encryption.
4. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 - Integrated with Microsoft 365, offering phishing and malware protection, safe attachments, and safe links to combat common email security threats.
5. Sophos Email - Advanced spam filtering, phishing protection, malware detection, and encryption.

About Everything IT Pros

We're a family-owned IT Solutions company with over 55 years of IT support experience. We provide expert-level support on every interaction, every time - no excuses and no exceptions. We design and create custom solutions to secure business emails and minimize risks of advanced and common email security threats. Upfront pricing. No hidden costs.

Everything IT Pros - Email Security for Small Businesses.