¿Qué es la seguridad del correo electrónico?

Email security refers to the practice of protecting email against potential cybersecurity threats. Phishing, account takeover, and other email-focused cyberattacks pose a significant risk to an organization, its employees, and corporate and customer data.

Email is a common target of cyberattacks due to its ubiquity and the relative ease of crafting a phishing campaign compared to other cyber threats. Protecting against the ever-evolving email threat requires advanced email security solutions.

Más información Lea el informe Forrester Wave™

¿Qué es la seguridad del correo electrónico?

Amenazas comunes a la seguridad del correo electrónico

Algunas de las mayores amenazas a la seguridad del correo electrónico incluyen:

Phishing

Los ataques de phishing son las amenazas más conocidas y comunes a la seguridad del correo electrónico. Los ataques de phishing comenzaron con ataques como la estafa del Príncipe Nigeriano, que eran conocidos por su mala gramática y pretextos increíbles. Con el tiempo, estos ataques se han vuelto más sofisticados y los atacantes envían correos electrónicos mucho más pulidos con pretextos más plausibles.

The modern phishing attack can be general or targeted. These targeted attacks, also called spear phishing attacks, are highly researched and designed to trick a particular person or group.

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

One example of a common spear phishing attack is business email compromise (BEC). In a BEC attack, the target is tricked into sending sensitive data — or more commonly money — to the attacker. BEC attacks have become one of the most significant and expensive phishing attacks that companies face. According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), BEC attacks between the years 2013 and 2022 caused an estimated loss of $50 billion.

Malware

Email is an ideal delivery mechanism for malware. Malware can be attached directly to an email or embedded in documents that are shared as attachments or via cloud-based storage. And once installed on a computer, malware may steal sensitive information or encrypt a user’s files.

Pérdida de datos

Las cuentas de correo electrónico tienen acceso a una gran cantidad de información confidencial. Además de los datos enviados directamente por correo electrónico, estas cuentas también se utilizan para acceder a infraestructura basada en la nube y otros servicios en línea.

An attacker with access to these email accounts can gain access to all of this sensitive information, making email account credentials a common target of attack. Additionally, this information can be leaked by employees who accidentally include an unauthorized party on an email chain or fall for a phishing attack.

Enlaces maliciosos

Los enlaces maliciosos son algunas de las formas más comunes en que los ciberdelincuentes utilizan el correo electrónico como arma. Con un enlace incrustado en un correo electrónico, un atacante puede dirigir al destinatario a una página web bajo el control del atacante.

These phishing pages can be used for a variety of different purposes. Phishing pages can be designed to steal user credentials or deliver malware. Regardless, they can cause serious damage to an organization.

Account Takeover

In an account takeover (ATO) attack, a cybercriminal gains access to a user’s email or other online account. This is usually accomplished by stealing the user’s login credentials via phishing, credential stuffing, malware, or similar means.

Once an attacker has control over a user’s email account, they can abuse it in various ways. For example, the user’s email might be used in a spear phishing attack, to send out spam, or to gain access to other accounts by requesting password reset emails to be sent to the compromised account.

Spam

Spam is unwanted email sent out via mass mailers. Spam can be used for various purposes, ranging from marketing efforts by legitimate companies to attempts to infect the target computer with malware.

Quishing

Quishing is a form of phishing attack that uses QR codes. Emails will contain an image of a QR code, which, if scanned, will direct the user to a phishing site designed to harvest login credentials or infect their computer with malware.

Quishing attacks are designed to take advantage of the fact that a user is likely to scan the code presented in an email using the camera on their mobile device. Since personal smartphones are likely unmanaged by the company, this provides a means for the attacker to bypass the organization’s security controls.

Types of Email Security Services and Solutions

Companies can use various email security services and solutions to protect against phishing and other email-related threats. Some common types include:

  • Secure Email Gateways (SEG): SEGs are deployed at the perimeter of the corporate network to inspect and filter malicious emails. These tools use various criteria — such as malware signatures, URL filtering, and other phishing patterns — to identify and block malicious emails. These solutions may also incorporate antivirus protection, data loss prevention (DLP), and sandbox analysis of potentially malicious attachments.
  • Cloud Email Security: Cloud email security solutions such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 commonly have built-in security features. For example, the provider may offer threat protection, spam filtering, encryption, and other defenses.
  • Email Data Protection (EDP): EDP solutions are designed to protect against potential leaks of sensitive data and ensure compliance with data protection laws. EDP often uses encryption, DLP, and SEGs to achieve its function.
  • API-Based: API-based security solutions take advantage of the APIs provided by email solutions. These solutions use the access offered by APIs to inspect emails for malicious content and block potential phishing attacks without the need to be deployed in-line.

AI in Email Security

Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have multiple potential impacts for email security, including:

  • Language Analysis: Large language models (LLMs) have the ability to read and analyze the content of an email. They can be used to identify potential warning signs of phishing attacks, such as attempts to create a sense of urgency or use psychological manipulation to get the target to do what the attacker wants.
  • Behavioral Analysis: AI is also well-suited to identifying patterns and trends in large volumes of data. This capability can be used for behavioral analysis, enabling email security tools to identify unusual email traffic that is indicative of a potential attack.

Características clave de los servicios de seguridad de correo electrónico

Email security services should provide protection against a wide range of email threats. Some key features of these solutions include the following:

  • Phishing Prevention: Phishing is the leading email security threat to the business. Email security solutions should use AI and ML to identify and block phishing emails before they reach an employee’s inbox.
  • Malware Detection: Phishing emails are commonly designed to deliver malware via malicious links and attachments. Email security services should offer sandboxed, signature, and heuristic analysis to identify malware in emails.
  • Email Encryption: Encryption helps to protect sensitive data from exposure by rendering emails unreadable to eavesdroppers. This helps to reduce the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access to email data.
  • Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Email can be used to send sensitive information to unauthorized parties. DLP solutions identify sensitive content in an email and block it from being leaked.
  • Spam Filtering: Unwanted spam emails are sent out in massive volumes, wasting storage capacity and network bandwidth. Email security solutions should be able to identify and filter spam before it reaches the user’s inbox.
  • Regulatory Compliance: Email can be a significant threat to regulatory compliance due to the potential for data breaches. Email security solutions should offer built-in support for implementing regulatory data protection requirements.
  • Email Authentication: Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) is an email authentication and security protocol designed to protect against phishing and other email-based attacks. If domain owners enable DMARC, it can prevent phishers from spoofing email addresses from their domain. DMARC specifies how to handle emails that fail verification. It uses two main protocols to verify the authenticity of an email:
  • Sender Policy Framework (SPF): SPF authenticates emails based on the IP address of the sender. The owner of a domain can add a list of IP addresses authorized to send emails from that domain to their DNS record. The recipients of emails can then check to verify that the source of the email is an authorized IP address for that domain.
  • DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM): DKIM uses digital signatures to authenticate emails. Domain owners can include DKIM public keys in their DNS records and digitally sign their email messages. Recipients can use the provided public key to validate the signature and verify the authenticity of the email.

7 maneras de proteger su correo electrónico

El correo electrónico es uno de los vectores de ataque más utilizados por los ciberdelincuentes porque es fácil y eficaz. Protegerse contra estos ataques también puede ser simple si una organización y sus empleados siguen las mejores prácticas de seguridad del correo electrónico, incluyendo:

  1. Use una contraseña segura: Las contraseñas débiles, reutilizadas y filtradas son la causa más común de comprometer la cuenta de correo electrónico. El uso de una contraseña segura y única es esencial para la seguridad de las cuentas de correo electrónico.
  2. Active la autenticación de múltiples factores (MFA): si un atacante obtiene acceso a las credenciales de correo electrónico de un usuario, la cuenta comprometida se puede utilizar en una variedad de ataques. Activar MFA hace que sea más difícil para un atacante realizar una toma de control de cuenta de correo electrónico porque necesita algo más que la contraseña del usuario.
  3. Implemente soluciones de prevención de pérdida de datos (DLP): los datos confidenciales se pueden filtrar por correo electrónico de forma intencionada o no. Las soluciones DLP pueden ayudar a identificar signos de posible exfiltración de datos y bloquearlos antes de que se produzca una violación.
  4. Implementar filtrado de correo electrónico de phishing: si bien muchos proveedores de correo electrónico intentan filtrar el contenido de phishing, algunos ataques se escaparán. Implementar una solución para buscar y filtrar contenido de phishing puede ayudar a evitar que estos correos electrónicos lleguen a las bandejas de entrada de los empleados.
  5. Escanee en busca de archivos adjuntos maliciosos: los archivos adjuntos son una forma común en que los correos electrónicos de phishing envían malware a un objetivo. El análisis de correos electrónicos en busca de archivos adjuntos sospechosos o maliciosos puede permitir que estos archivos adjuntos se identifiquen y eliminen del correo electrónico antes de que lleguen a la bandeja de entrada del usuario y puedan infectar su máquina.
  6. Capacite a los empleados: los ataques de phishing están diseñados para aprovecharse de un usuario engañándolo para que haga clic en un enlace o abra un archivo adjunto malicioso. La capacitación de los empleados en concientización cibernética puede ayudar a los empleados a identificar y responder adecuadamente al correo electrónico malicioso, disminuyendo la probabilidad de un ataque exitoso.
  7. Realizar monitoreo frecuente de seguridad: El panorama de las amenazas cibernéticas está en constante evolución, y los ciberdelincuentes pueden desarrollar nuevos métodos de ataque o iniciar nuevas campañas usando correo electrónico contra una organización. Monitorear el tráfico de correo electrónico en busca de anomalías que puedan indicar una nueva amenaza puede ser fundamental para detectar y responder a estos ataques.

Seguridad del correo electrónico con Check Point

Cybercriminals understand how vital email is to modern business, making an email security solution capable of detecting phishing, data loss, and other email-related threats, an absolute necessity.

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration provides state-of-the-art protection against common and emerging email threats. To learn more about its capabilities, request a demo. You’re also welcome to try it out for yourself with a free trial.

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