An organization’s email is one of the largest targets for cyberattacks, phishing attacks, malware and business email compromise, so an effective email security plan is crucial. Together with implementing technologies to help safeguard against threats, organizations must also train their workforce and learn how to protect assets, such as email accounts and social media content, against cybercriminals.

By establishing an email security plan, an organization can learn the differences between a secure email and a malicious email and protect sensitive information from falling into the hands of hackers. A secure email system protects against email attacks and can reduce costly downtime caused by threats such as phishing emails, scams or data loss that can compromise an organization's network infrastructure.

Email messaging is fundamental to an organization's communication and daily operations. While technology is evolving rapidly, email service is still vital, and having a robust email security system in place has never been more important for an organization. Email security strategies provide the real-time protection that is necessary to keep your sensitive data safe and protected. AI-powered and automation-based security gateways are the newer, more technology-forward email security.

Email attacks can come in many different forms. But it’s important to remember they all have the same malicious intent and to be proactive in understanding the types of email threats out there. Here are some of the most common types of attacks:

Social engineering attacks

Psychologically manipulating people into unwittingly compromising the security of their information is one of the most common attack vectors.

Phishing

Phishing scams use fraudulent emails, text messages, social media content or websites to trick users into sharing credentials or downloading malware.

Spear phishing

This form of phishing directly targets an individual or an organization through a personalized email.

Whale phishing

This form of phishing targets high-level corporate officers with messages that attackers write meticulously to manipulate their recipients into giving up sensitive information. These correspondents can come in the form of emails, text messages or phone calls.

Malicious email attachment

This form of malware targets email attachments disguised as documents, voicemails, faxes, PDFs and other such files. These hackers use different tactics, such as fear, urgency and curiosity.

Ransomware

This malicious software encrypts files and is designed to block access to a system until the victim pays a sum of money.

Spoofing

Spoofing is when an attacker forges an email message with a fake sender address and disguises themselves as legitimate.

Impersonation

A cybercriminal pretends to be a trusted sender to secure money or data. An example is business email compromise, which is when a hacker impersonates an employee to try to steal from the organization.