Email Security

Email security solutions protect organizations from unwanted threats and attacks against incoming and outgoing emails and attachments.

Why hosted email security?
Today, email security is a fact of life. Because we love email and can’t do business without it, hackers have developed a deep passion for launching malicious attacks intended to disrupt our daily business activities and wreak havoc on our networks. To fight back, a variety of email security solutions are now available to thwart these types of attacks.

While email security was once only available via on-premise software or an appliance, the industry has evolved and several good email security solutions are now delivered through the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. Opting for the SaaS delivery model offers a variety of benefits. Organizations don’t have to install any hardware or software to run the service, and the update and maintenance processes are automatic and included in a flat per user, per month fee.

Companies moving their email to the cloud often find that the email provider offers a built-in email security solution. However, some hosted providers let you select your own security solutions, so it’s smart to understand your options (see table below).

In addition, we have gathered a variety of helpful resources to keep you informed of industry happenings and events.

Helpful Articles/Resources:

• Essential Guide to Email Security
• 25 Most Common Mistakes in Email Security
• SC Magazine – latest email security news
• Roger’s Information Security Blog
• Computerworld’s Security Blog
• InformationWeek’s Security Blog
• eWeek Security Watch Blog
• Email Security Whitepapers/Case Studies

Vendor Blogs:

• Google Enterprise Blog
• MX Logic Blog
• Microsoft Online Services Team Blog
• Proofpoint Email Security Blog
• Symantec Security Blog
• Webroot Threat Blog
• Websense Security Labs Blog
  

Hosted Security Providers:

• Google Postini
• Microsoft Forefront
• MX Logic
• Proofpoint
• Symantec/MessageLabs
• Webroot
• Websense
  

Whichever solution you select, make sure it includes at least some or all of the functionality mentioned below:

• Spam filtering: A set of security measures that help to reduce the amount of spam that enters email inboxes.
• Advanced spam blocking: “Intelligent” filtering features that use Bayesian analysis and other system algorithms to block spam messages.
• Virus and worm scanning: Blocks viruses and worms (self-replicating programs) from harming your network.
• Content and attachment filtering: Scans the content of emails and their attachments to ensure they are free of dangerous content.
• Phishing/fraud protection: Thwarts attempts by hackers to secure sensitive information such as passwords and credit card details from recipients.
• Email/Denial-of-service (DoS) attack protection: Minimizes the risk of catastrophic attacks that can render entire networks unavailable.
• Outbound message filtering: Ensures the safety of messages as they leave your network and prevents harmful messages from being sent via your network.
• Quarantining: Provides a temporary storage location for messages that are identified as spam and that should not be delivered to a user mailbox inside the organization. This feature also stores “false positive” messages so that users can retrieve and whitelist them, if necessary.
• Real-time monitoring: Ensures that your network is protected around-the-clock since attacks can occur at any time.
• Reporting: Provides the administrator with reports of the spam filtering and activity taking place.
• Policy-based encryption: Automatically encrypts sensitive information prior to transmission so that it cannot be read if intercepted.