Why Your Organization Should Have an Email Security Policy
Companies face a wide range of email security threats. Email is a common medium for phishing attacks, which uses malicious links and attachments to steal sensitive information, trick users, and deliver malware to an organization’s systems. Email can also be a treasure trove of sensitive information for an attacker. Emails may have sensitive data in their bodies, attachments, or cloud shared documents. Additionally, access to email accounts may enable an attacker to gain further access to a user’s other online accounts.
Since email security policy places restrictions on the use of corporate email systems, it can help to prevent data exfiltration and reduce the risk that an organization will be compromised via phishing or similar attacks.
How Does an Email Security Policy Work
An email security policy works like other corporate IT policies, such as an acceptable use policy (AUP) or a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy. It lays out the rules for the use of corporate email systems and the responsibilities of email users.
Before a user is granted access to a corporate email account, they would be required to read and sign the email policy, likely as part of the employee onboarding process. After that, they would be expected to comply with its requirements.
An organization may also implement security solutions and monitoring designed to track compliance with corporate policies. For example, it may monitor user email sessions for signs of non-compliance such as accessing email from an unapproved device. Also, data loss prevention (DLP) solutions can be used to identify the presence of sensitive data in emails going to an external or unapproved recipient.
What is Included in an Email Security Policy
A security policy should provide an organization’s employees with the information that they need to appropriately and securely use corporate email systems. Some examples of information that should be included in a corporate email security policy include the following:
- Purpose: Define the purpose and scope of the policy.
- Ownership: The company owns the email system and all communications performed using it.
- Privacy: Define an employee’s expectation of privacy while using the corporate email system.
- Usage: How the employees are allowed to use the corporate email system (i.e. whether incidental personal use is allowed, etc.).
- Responsibilities: Describe an employee’s responsibilities while using the corporate email system, such as looking out for phishing attacks, etc.
- Restrictions: State the types of content that are not permitted in corporate emails (offensive language, user credentials, confidential data, etc.).
- Consequences: Potential consequences for violating the policy, such as additional training, loss of email privileges, termination, etc.
- Reporting: How employees should report identified phishing attacks, policy violations, etc.
- Administrative Information: Details on when the policy will be updated, how long emails will be retained, etc.
The email security policy should be signed by employees as part of the onboarding process and should be made readily available on the corporate Intranet or a similar, easily-accessible location. This enables an organization’s employees to consult the policy on an as-needed process if they have questions about how to use the email system or what to do if they detect a potential phishing email.
How to Create an Email Security Policy
An email security policy defines an organization’s official policy for the use of its email systems. As a result, creating an email policy from scratch may seem daunting.
However, many organizations offer templates for developing an email security policy. A company can start with one of these sample policies and then tune it to meet its unique requirements. For example, the details of an organization’s IT infrastructure, regulatory compliance responsibilities, and other factors may impact the content of the policy.
It’s also a good idea to ensure that all relevant stakeholders are involved in the creation of the security policy. For example, al security policy should always have input from the security and legal teams. However, it may also be beneficial to ensure that major email users — such as the corporate marketing team — have the ability to ensure that the policy meets their needs as well.
Secure Email with Check Point
An email security policy provides a foundation for a corporate email security strategy. However, a policy by itself defines expectations for employees with no method of determining or enforcing compliance.
Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration can help an organization ensure that its security policy is followed and protect the company against other email-related security threats. To learn more about how Harmony Email and Collaboration can help protect your organization, sign up for a free demo today.
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