Securing email accounts has become an essential measure for enterprises and institutions operating in a wide range of sectors, from education and government to commercial and industrial. While most organisations know that they should adopt protective policies and practices to safeguard their email accounts, few are aware of the short and long-term consequences of email intrusion.
Updating anti-malware, selecting strong passwords, using multi-factor authentication and using email encryption are all important steps to protecting who has access to an email account and the information and capabilities it contains. In the next sections, we’ll take a closer look at some of the potential consequences for companies who neglect to adopt these solutions as standard practice.
Gaining control
Consider how many actions you can perform from an email account. To name but a few, you can change its password, access private contacts, read any messages that have been stored or sent from the account, and issue emails of your own. If a threat actor manages to access a company email account, they will enjoy these capabilities. As a result, they can lock a user out of their own account and steal any private contact details or sensitive information included in emails. They can also assume the identity of the account owner and impersonate them, contacting colleagues, clients and customers, causing chaos as they do this. The higher the rank of an email account owner, the greater the risk. Imagine the damage a threat actor could do with control of your financial director’s email account?
Accessing data
Finally, the worst risk of unauthorised entities accessing your accounts is the data they contain. The various mailboxes of any enterprise email account are typically packed with personal information on data subjects like customers, employees, partners, and suppliers. Often, they will also include confidential company information. This may involve sensitive contract and agreements, or financial details like company credit card numbers.
If a hacker gets hold of this data, it will constitute a breach. From fines issued by regulators to compensation offered to data subjects, breaches are expensive. Their long-term impacts can be even more harmful, affecting a firm’s reputation and the value of its stock.
Simplifying email security
Ensuring your company email content remains secure is essential, but it doesn’t have to be a difficult process. At Galaxkey, we offer a user-friendly email security solution that delivers powerful protection and a host of useful tools.
Our email encryption software allows users to effectively scramble all the messages they store or send with end-to-end encryption. This includes not just the body copy of their emails, but also any attached documents. If a hacker invades your company email accounts, they will not be able to interact or view any of the information they contain.
Our secure system never stores passwords and has zero back doors for threat actors to exploit, while tools designed for compliance allow you to recall or time-out the messages you send. To find out more, and experience advanced email security for yourself, contact our team today and book a two-week trial for free.
