Email communication remains one of the leading communication channels in both the private and business spheres, with 319.6 billion emails exchanged across the globe every day. These messages are often opened quickly and without a second thought.
Cybercriminals are all too aware of this behavior. A whopping 94% of malware is delivered via email, and just one successful attack on a single corporate device can quickly spread to other devices and network servers, bringing operations to a halt. Phishing campaigns may also use deception and malicious URLs to trick unwitting recipients into revealing sensitive information or transferring funds into attackers’ hands.
The financial impact of phishing has risen several times over in recent years, and malicious emails now cost the average large U.S. organization almost $15 million annually. Your clients aren’t the only ones at risk, either — even the best-trained technicians are only human, and just as prone to opening a suspicious email or clicking a link that they shouldn’t.
A new approach is needed
Though email service providers try to stay on top of persistent threats, they often lack advanced security tools to detect attack patterns. Users are instead given the freedom to decide whether opening a message is safe — and despite ongoing phishing awareness training, some will inevitably fall victim to malicious actors.
In the past, email security solutions relied on tactics like signature-based threat detection, attempting to identify malware attachments and malicious outbound links based on a database of known threats. Sandboxing, in which messages are tested thoroughly in a separate environment before being passed through to the recipient’s inbox, is another traditional tactic.
While these measures have some value, they don’t fully meet the challenges of today’s email threats. Advances in automation have made it trivial for cybercriminals to generate vast quantities of new malware — over 500,000 variants each day — and even trusted domains can readily be hijacked for malicious purposes. Threat actors trade in stolen user credentials, mined from past data breaches, and often compromise legitimate websites through supply-chain attacks. And sandboxing is a slow, resource-intensive process: for many fast-moving businesses, accepting email delivery delays of up to 20 minutes is simply not a long-term option.
Fortunately, advances in technology can be leveraged by the “good guys” as well. They must be, if you hope to safeguard your clients (and yourself) in 2022 and beyond.
Email security, evolved
Reactive measures don’t meet the moment when it comes to modern email security, but there are solutions that do. Look for the following features when evaluating your options.
For URLs, simple domain reputation checks must be replaced with threat intelligence sources that monitor cyberattacks on a global scale and filter out potentially dangerous links. Computer vision analysis, based on image-recognition algorithms, helps to scan attached pictures and identify spoofing emails with images that mimic trustworthy sources.
Real-time scanning of email traffic before delivery offers significant benefits, but most businesses receive and send large volumes of messages — and can afford only a few seconds of delay. Advanced security solutions may achieve this impressive metric by breaking email content down to smaller elements, like URLs and email attachments, to be analyzed by multiple engines at the same time.
Tackling advanced persistent threats (ADTs) and zero-day attacks requires exploit blocking early in the attack chain, before malware can begin to execute. Existing and potential threat patterns should be continuously monitored by an incident response team to ensure holistic visibility of security alerts and incidents.
An enhanced email security stack means new revenue streams, a better reputation, and sustainable growth for every managed service provider. You’ll be better-equipped to protect customers’ workflows and counter the weaponization of this important communication channel.
Enhance your cyber protection services
If you hope to protect your clients’ largest attack surface, email security must be a top priority. But responding to rising cyberthreats takes more than simply piling new solutions onto your existing stack.
Today’s MSPs use an average of four different vendors to deliver various cybersecurity, backup, and disaster recovery capabilities. Many will find that there’s overlap in the services that their vendors supply, resulting in increased expenditure on redundant functionality — while tool sprawl in general adds significant training and managerial demands for your technicians. If your solutions don’t integrate together neatly (or if a software update introduces incompatibilities down the road) it can also cause dangerous security gaps that threaten your clients’ businesses as well as your own.
With the Advanced Email Security pack for Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud, service providers can deliver cutting-edge email protection that integrates natively into Acronis’ flagship cyber protection solution. Enjoy streamlined management and the flexibility to create service tiers and bundles that address the unique needs of any client — all through a single pane of glass.
Interested in learning more about Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud with Advanced Email Security — or any of the other advanced packs available now? Start your free 30-day trial or view a demonstration.
This guest blog is courtesy of Acronis. Read more Acronis guest blogs here. Regularly contributed guest blogs are part of ChannelE2E’s sponsorship program.
