Protecting Office365: Are built-in security features enough to protect your data?
As our email accounts are the backbone of business communications, it is of no surprise that they have become a magnet for cyber criminals. But do you have advanced email security controls protecting this ‘treasure trove’ of corporate information? Unfortunately, many businesses are still depending on bare minimum-security features offered by email providers such as Office365 to protect their critical data. However, as email continues to be the number one cyber-attack vector across the globe, businesses need to be strengthening their email security measures to prevent the risk of being compromised.
The email security landscape
If your email security controls are not effectively safeguarding your assets, you may have already fallen victim to a costly phishing attack. Shockingly, the 2019 Verizon data breach report found that one third of data breaches involved phishing activity.
A malicious email which bypasses security controls could devastate any organisation. With the growing prevalence of highly targeted phishing attacks, the risk of an unsuspecting employee getting duped into clicking is higher than ever before. We are no longer talking about scams like the notorious email from the ‘Nigerian prince’. Hackers are now sending highly believable phishing emails posing as your bank, internal teams, suppliers, retailers and local councils, even as security experts it can be tricky to spot a scam!
Phishing attacks which aim to steal login credentials are on the rise. However, this is even more problematic if your employees are recycling passwords. Once a hacker successfully harvests your credentials and accesses your corporate email accounts, they will often attempt to gain access to other critical systems. This greatly increases the likelihood of affecting multiple systems and data, resulting in a largescale breach. To prevent this unfortunate human habit, businesses should encourage all employees to use password managers such as LastPass. This allows employees to randomly generate secure passwords which are very difficult to guess using brute force attempts.
How can businesses address these challenges?
Basic Office365 anti-spam filters are simply not enough to keep your business safe from these relentless attacks. To keep hackers at bay and prevent the risk of pervasive attacks, you must have multiple layers of email security controls. However, many organisations face the challenge of choosing an email security strategy which is cost effective, user friendly and blocks advanced security threats.
As there are multiple points of entry which a hacker could exploit, protecting your Office365 accounts can seem complex. However, using the right tools you can eliminate your security weaknesses by deploying effective security policies and closely monitoring user activity. To reduce the risk of Office365 being compromised it is important to monitor the devices and users who are accessing accounts. This increases visibility so that you can identify and prevent potential cyber breaches in real-time.
Introducing Mimecast
Mimecast is a powerful cloud security solution which offers advanced protection for Office365. It protects your cloud email by addressing three critical needs: security, archiving and continuity. Mimecast offers robust security protection for your Office365 cloud email, its multi-layered detection system provides critical protection against advanced persistent threats and data loss.
Mimecast can:
- Protect your Office365 accounts from spam, malware, and phishing attacks.
- Safeguards employee email communications and allows you to enforce tailored security controls.
- Reduces cyber-risk with targeted threat protection and data loss prevention
Mimecast not only provides backups of all your business-critical data, it also offers easy employee access to this information via powerful search on mobile and desktop devices. Mimecast safeguards email accounts against malicious links, attachments and social-engineering attacks, as well as offering content control and blocking. In the event of an email outage, Mimecast Continuity ensures employees can remain productive. This continuity service also reduces recovery time to almost zero, without the complexity, hardware or software of email continuity with traditional on-premises solutions.
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