Receiving data from clients and vendors over email has been a staple of standard business operations for nearly three decades. However, just because your business relies on email doesn’t mean that you can trust every email that comes into your inbox. Do you and your employees know the latest tips for emailing safety to protect your business systems?
In this article, we take a deeper look at emailing safety tips to help keep your business safe.
Our Top 9 Emailing Safety Tips & Best Practices
Here, we share 9 emailing safety tips can help protect you and your business from scams, phishing attacks, hackers, and various other breaches.
Don’t Open Emails from Unknown Senders
While an unknown sender could be a new vendor or customer, it’s as likely (if not more so) that it’s a phishing attempt. Look for spelling mistakes or emoji use in the subject line and run a search for the unknown email address to see if anyone has reported it for email attacks.
Use Spam Filters
Most email systems come with built-in spam filters that places bad emails into a spam folder. When you use spam filters for email, review your spam folder occasionally to be sure that your system didn’t filter any useful emails. However, most spam filters are fairly accurate, and you won’t find good emails in your spam folder very often.
Get Anti-Virus Software
When an email looks legit, you may click on a link or try to download an attachment before realizing the danger. Get anti-virus software that can prevent a bad page from loading or block a virus download. Advanced anti-virus software can warn against and protect users from viruses, malware, spyware, spam, and phishing attacks.
Beware of Spoof Emails or Phishing
“Business Email Compromise (BEC)” is a crime easily executed when scammers create spoof emails that resemble real email addresses from within your organization or similar to a common vendor’s email address. These scammers may create an email extension (the part after the @ symbol) that’s only one letter different from an extension used in your company, tricking employees into opening bad emails.
Be Mindful of Oversharing
Posting personal information on social media and other public places can give hackers the opportunity to guess at passwords and gain access to an employee’s business email account. They may also use that information to appear as if they personally know a member of your organization in a phishing email. Remind employees to safeguard their information on business and personal accounts.
Change Passwords Regularly
While many people know they shouldn’t use the same password for multiple accounts, most admit that they still do, anyway. Remember that if one account suffers a data breach, any other account that uses the same password is at risk.
Don’t Send Sensitive Data in Email
Despite your best efforts to maintain emailing safety, email is easy to compromise. Plain text email information traveling between servers is susceptible to interception. Your company should invest in email encryption if you must transmit sensitive information by email.
Backup Important Information & Data
Many business solutions include automatic archiving for company emails to protect their information for potential audits or litigation. You can also use a searchable database to search for certain keywords, such as “password” or “login” to see how often employees have shared sensitive data over email.
Log Out
Train employees to always log out of their accounts when they finish their work, especially if using a shared workstation. Granting other employees access to their information could create a weakness in your company’s security.
How Do You Keep Your Company Safe from Email Attacks?
Use password best practices with strong password formation and regular updates. Keep software, firewalls, and anti-virus definitions up to date. Finally, ensure that you train your employees to report suspicious emails to the appropriate security department and never open unknown emails.
Call Emerald City Solutions Today!
For help installing and managing commercial email solutions for your business, contact us at Emerald City Solutions. We proudly serve the area in and around Seattle, WA. Call us at 206-531-3978 or contact us online for emailing safety, data security, and professional IT services.
