Intelligent SME.tech Issue 20 | Page 42

intelligent

// FEATURE //

THE PRIMARY
OBJECTIVE OF EMAIL SECURITY BEST PRACTICES IS TO PREVENT BREACHES AND DATA LEAKAGE .
The cost of a successful brand impersonation attack can be severe . Research conducted by Mimecast in 2021 found that 75 % of consumers in Saudi Arabia – and 78 % of consumers in the UAE – would stop spending money with their favourite brand if they fell victim to a phishing attack involving that brand , well ahead of the global average of 57 %.
Encouragingly , 71 % of surveyed SMEs have a service in place to detect and protect against malicious websites spoofing their websites or brands . Over three-quarters ( 84 %) were made aware of at least one spoofing attack or lookalike domain imitating their brand in the past year , with eight such attempts being the average . per month , potentially leaving employees vulnerable to falling victim to new attack types .
Smaller companies are not immune to cyberthreats , but with a robust cyberresilience strategy in place , SMEs can bolster their defences and avoid the financial and reputational damage of a successful breach .
To protect against email-borne attacks , SMEs need a cyber-resilience strategy that provides layered security to protect employees and company data from a broad range of threats . User awareness in SMEs plays a big role as well , especially where a complete suite of defences is typically lacking in smaller organisations .
Shane Grennan , Channel Director – Middle East , Fortinet
Regular cyberawareness training is also essential to ensure employees can identify and avoid behaviour that would put them and their organisations at risk . However , half of SMEs ( 49 %) in Mimecast ' s latest research provide such training less often than once
Shane Grennan , Channel Director – Middle East , Fortinet
Email remains one of the biggest cybersecurity threats for businesses of all sizes but cybercriminals are well aware that small businesses might not have the resources to spend on security staff and software as would a much larger enterprise .
This is what makes them a prime target , as hackers see small businesses as particularly vulnerable , especially those without even basic security measures like firewalls in place . Cybercriminals are also aware that many small businesses work with large companies , so access to a small business ' network might mean access to that of a larger corporation .
The primary objective of email security best practices is to prevent breaches and data leakage . All of the below practices – employee training , deploying email security solutions and encouraging users to secure their passwords and use 2FA – can prevent attackers from targeting users and exploiting vulnerabilities .
• Train staff in cybersecurity awareness : Employees are organisations ' first line of defence against email-borne cyberattacks . Cybersecurity awareness training helps employees know the threats they face , which reduces an organisation ’ s cyberrisk and increases the chances of keeping their data secure . Make sure employees understand how to spot the potential signs
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