Get to Grips with Your Email Security

Owners of small and medium-sized businesses often make the mistake of thinking that they aren’t on the criminals’ radar when it comes to email ‘phishing’ attacks. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. More than 40% of cyber attacks are aimed at small businesses – and email is usually the criminals’ way in.

Small businesses are a prime target for criminals – precisely because they often don’t take the same email protection precautions that larger companies do. A shocking fact is that 60% of small businesses that suffer a data breach close their doors within six months. Don’t let your business fall foul of this!

The vast proportion (91%) of cyber attacks start with an email phishing scam. One click, by one person, in an innocent-looking email, can result in disaster.

But there’s plenty you can do to stay protected. Here are three things you can do right now to make it harder for criminals to launch an attack on your business.

1. First up, make sure your people understand phishing scams – they’re the way in for most successful email attacks. Have a training plan in place to show everyone what to look out for. And check they know what to do if they think they’ve fallen for a scam.

2. Next, look at your email account settings. Switch on multi-factor authentication, where you prove its you on another device. And always use business email. It has more protection than your personal email, and its encryption can stop anyone intercepting messages.

3. Finally, get your team to use a password manager that creates random, impossible-to-guess passwords – and remembers them, so humans don’t have to.

We’ve produced a new, jargon-free guide, ‘Getting to Grips with Email Security’, reveals why you might be vulnerable, what you need to look out for and what you can do to protect yourself. It walks you through all you need to know to protect your business from a phishing attack. To get your free copy, click the button below.