6 Simple Steps to Enhance Your Email Security

Most cyberattacks on small businesses don’t start with a hacker breaking through a firewall. They start with an email: a fake invoice, a “shared document” link, or a message that looks like it came from your boss. The good news is that a handful of habits and settings stop most of them.

Here are six steps any business can take, whether you have five employees or fifty.

1. Turn on multi-factor authentication for every mailbox

A stolen password is the most common way into a business email account. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds a second check, usually a code or an approval on your phone, so a password alone isn’t enough.

Turn it on for everyone, including owners, managers and shared mailboxes. Those accounts are often the ones attackers want most.

2. Filter email before it reaches your people

A good spam and phishing filter catches malicious links and attachments before anyone has a chance to click. The filter that comes with your email service is a start. A dedicated email security layer catches more of the convincing fakes.

Check that someone reviews what the filter quarantines, so a real customer email doesn’t sit unseen for a week.

3. Use a password manager and stop reusing passwords

When people reuse a password, one breach on an unrelated website can unlock your company email. A business password manager lets each person keep a long, unique password for every account without having to remember them.

4. Train your team to slow down

Technology can’t catch everything, so your team is the last line of defense. Short, regular training works better than a once-a-year slideshow. Teach people to watch for:

• urgent requests to pay, buy gift cards or change bank details
• links that ask you to “sign in” to see a document
• sender addresses that are almost, but not quite, right
• messages that ask you to keep something secret

5. Verify payment changes with a phone call

Business email compromise, where a criminal impersonates a vendor or executive to redirect a payment, is one of the costliest scams around. One simple rule stops most of it: any request to change payment details gets confirmed by phone, using a number you already have on file, not one in the email.

6. Keep devices and email apps updated

Many attacks rely on known flaws that were fixed months ago. Automatic updates for computers, phones and email apps close those gaps. Retire anything that no longer gets security updates.

How ITVantix helps

Email security is part of every MAXX Care agreement, which includes multi-factor authentication, spam filtering, security awareness training and password management, managed by a local team. If you’d like a short, practical tip like these every week, sign up for our free Cyber Security Tip of the Week.