Secure Email Gateways: Your First Line of Defense Against Email Security Threats
Reading Time: 5 minutesCybercriminals increasingly attack via email, so what can you do to protect yourself and your business? A Secure Email Gateway is the answer.
When you send an email, you expect it to reach the intended recipient without alterations. But this doesn’t always happen, as cybercriminals constantly try to hijack emails and trick people into opening malicious attachments or clicking on links that will deliver malware onto their devices.
So how can you protect yourself, family, friends, and employees? A secure email gateway can help prevent these threats.
What Is a Secure Email Gateway?
Secure email gateways (SEGs) are security measures put in place by email users including businesses, corporate organizations, and governments to protect their internal email servers from potential cyberattacks. SEGs inspect outbound and inbound emails for malicious elements, allowing users to monitor and control emails sent out and received, and determine whether the emails should be processed as previously instructed.
Secure email gateways are stationed on the email’s path, from the organization’s email server to the public internet. The SEG scans all messages before they leave or enter the server.
The principal purpose of SEGs is to prevent unwanted and potentially harmful emails from gaining access to your email servers. By doing so, SEGs keep confidential information from cybercriminals, privatize data, and encrypt sensitive emails containing sensitive information.
Emails or messages that are potentially harmful include:
- Spam.
- Malware.
- Viruses.
- Business Email Compromise (BEC).
- Fraudulent content.
- Ransomware.
- Denial-of-Service (DoS) or Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
- Trojan.
- Phishing attacks.
Not to mention various other social engineering attacks!
Furthermore, SEGs thoroughly scan outbound emails and internal email communication between employees so that sensitive information about the business doesn’t get leaked. The emails are prevented from leaving the server if malicious content is detected.
How Does a Secure Email Gateway Work?
SEGs employ a collection of rules, which the system uses to scan and filter emails leaving or entering the email server. They prevent harmful content in both inbound and outbound emails from getting into your network and devices.
Since SEGs operate on the email network and not the end-user devices, they can filter or scan emails before entering inboxes. For this reason, SEGs not only protect inboxes; they also protect employees’ devices and provide robust security to employees working on the network remotely.
SEGs scan the domain of the inbound emails, their contents, and other attachments inside the email for anything malicious. After the scanning process, if they don’t contain malware and are safe, the SEGs route the messages to the email server and then to the user’s mailbox.
On the other hand, if inbound emails are malicious, the SEGs will quarantine or block them and keep them so that the system administrator can thoroughly scrutinize them. They also analyze and filter outbound emails, and when they find sensitive data leaving the email network, they encrypt the data and block it from leaving the email server.
What Features Do Secure Email Gateways Have?
Although all SEGs have unique functionality and features, here are the main security features of SEGs.
Spam Filtering
Spam filtering technology uses algorithms to quarantine or block spam from known spam email domains. They also detect new emails containing specific patterns spammers use, such as keywords and malicious links. Furthermore, if certain spam emails pass the gateway and enter the mailbox, this feature allows users to report the spam and block the senders.
Content Filtering
This feature finds applications through outbound emails from within a company. SEGs prevent sensitive company data, like specific images, documents, or keywords, from being sent through email.
Malware and Virus Protection
SEGs also protect you from malware and viruses, which can infect your email network. They employ antivirus technology that scans emails and blocks or quarantines those that contain viruses and other malware. You must constantly update the antivirus software to keep up with the latest threats because cybercrime continually evolves.
Email Archiving
SEGs manage email services. They help store emails so that your organization can meet its data management and legal compliance needs.
Phishing Protection
SEGs secure businesses from phishing attacks. They apply anti-fraud technology to detect and stop sender spoofing. Additionally, SEGs use domain name validation to detect and prevent phishing attacks and quarantine emails containing links to phishing websites.
Admin Control and Reporting
This feature allows system administrators to determine what happens in the email network regarding quarantines and policies. The system administrator can manage the email security network from a centralized dashboard.
Furthermore, the configurable and automated SEG reports give system administrators better visibility over the email security platform. They can create rules to block emails with certain keywords or specific IPs or senders. Some SEGs even allow system administrators to access all the quarantined emails for further analysis if necessary.
What Are the Benefits of Using a Secure Email Gateway?
Here are some of the benefits of using SEGs.
1. SEGs Prevent Phishing Attacks and Block Malicious Emails
Emails are one of the most widely used communication methods in the workplace. Companies, businesses, and corporate organizations engage their employees this way, which is why cybercriminals target emails.
Providing your email network with SEGs reduces threats from malicious emails and phishing attacks. SEGs are your first defense against spam emails, phishing attacks, and malware.
2. Protect Employee Emails Across Multiple Devices
SEGs are incorporated into the email network, not installed on user devices. Therefore, email security gateways will protect everyone who operates on the given network, whether they work within the company or remotely. This protection exists across multiple end-user devices.
3. SEGs Stop Sensitive Information from Leaving the Organization
SEGs scan messages sent from the server before they leave. That way, any email that contains sensitive information is blocked from leaving the network.
4. SEGs Help Meet Compliance and Legal Requirements
SEGs, through encryption and email archiving, help businesses satisfy legal and compliance demands. That’s because SEG provides almost endless storage so that data can be stored for years in case legal action arises.
Additionally, SEGs also provide encryption for sensitive data within the network. It ensures business continuity; your operations can continue even if your client collapses.
Limitations of Secure Email Gateways
SEGs have done much good. However, there are some drawbacks to this email security solution too. Here are a few limitations associated with SEGs.
1. SEGs Are Defenseless Against Signature-Less Attacks
Secure email gateways cannot protect your email server from attacks that lack signatures. That’s because SEGs scrutinize email threats using previously known malicious content, so companies are at greater risk of zero-day attacks. Many successful breaches nowadays are unknown or are new ‘zero-day’ attacks not recognized by routine signature-based security systems.
2. SEGs Can’t Protect Against Business Economic Compromise Attacks
BEC attacks are highly sophisticated, so SEGs cannot defend against them. Cybercriminals spoof trusted brands or co-workers’ names to trick employees into opening spam emails. They can camouflage themselves as the CEO and send emails to innocent employees, who follow the malicious instructions to the letter, not knowing they are falling prey to a BEC attack.
3. Loss of Productivity
SEGs can also reduce productivity due to blocked or quarantined files. Some urgent emails may be delayed or not delivered, and some large files may lead to bottlenecks. This can lead to frustration and hiccups in the workflow.
4. Confined to Email Attacks
SEGs find applications mainly in email communication, but cybercriminals can attack from various sources. Businesses may relax thinking that SEGs offer protection in all ramifications, but they are still exposed to cyberattacks through the company portal, the web, and other routes.
5. Routine Upkeep and Maintenance
SEGs must be constantly updated to keep up with the latest modifications in malware and spam techniques. These updates require money, time, extensive IT resources, and more, which can be difficult, especially for small companies and startups.
Keep Your Emails Safe Using Security Email Gateways
Cyber threats come in the form of phishing, spam, denial-of-service attacks, and highly sophisticated BEC attacks.
And so, individuals, businesses, corporate organizations, and governments should employ SEGs to secure their emails from malicious entities seeking to steal data and cause other types of malicious harm.
Reference: https://www.makeuseof.com/what-are-secure-email-gateways/
Ref: makeuseof