Email is the backbone of business communication today which makes protecting your email communications of vital importance. Below are 5 ways your organization can improve its email security.
Use secure account passwords
One of the most secure password styles is to use a “passphrase”. A passphrase is a sentence that relies on the length of the passphrase to make them secure. A good passphrase should be at least 20 characters long. You should also regularly require that your staff change their account passwords, every 30 days is a good standard to use. One final key to a secure password is to not use the same password on multiple systems. For example, your email account password should be different than the password you use to sign into your PC.
Protecting your email data
Every company should have an email usage policy that outlines how email can be used and shared outside of the company. You will want to tailor this specifically to your needs, and it is important that your staff knows what the acceptable email policy is. Advise staff to be suspicious of clicking links in emails especially links they are not expecting even if they comes from a trusted email address. You will also want to ensure that your computers have all available software updates installed and make use of anti-virus programs. This helps reduce your risk of a virus or malware stealing your company data. Avoid checking your email from a public PC. Without knowing the security status of the computer you could be sharing all of your email information with unknown parties.
Prevent Spam
Make sure to never reply to spam email. Use unsubscribe links when they are available in emails. You should also avoid posting your email address online unless it is absolutely necessary. By posting your email address online you increase your risk of ending up on spammers list. Finally, make sure to use a spam filter to remove spam emails before they hit your inbox.
Compliance
Email compliance and security requirements are affecting a wider range of businesses these days. Multiple government regulations such as HIPAA regulations require many organizations to utilize email encryption and email archiving. While this mainly affects businesses in the Health Care, Finance, and Legal industries, it is generally recommended that every business look into using email encryption and archiving to maximize their email performance.
User training and best practices
Once your company has your email policy in place make sure that all employees receive and review the policy. You will want to regularly retrain employees on your email policy so there is no confusion on how they should be utilizing your email system. It is generally recommended that your email policy be reviewed once a year with your staff.
