什麼是電子郵件安全?

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.

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什麼是電子郵件安全?

電子郵件安全性的常見威脅

對電子郵件安全性的一些最大威脅包括:

網路釣魚

網路釣魚攻擊是對電子郵件安全最知名和最常見的威脅。網路釣魚攻擊始於尼日利亞王子詐騙等攻擊,這些攻擊以其糟糕的語法和令人難以置信的藉口而聞名。隨著時間的推移,這些攻擊變得越來越複雜,攻擊者發送更加精緻的電子郵件,並且使用更合理的藉口。

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.

商業電子郵件詐騙 (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.

惡意軟體

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.

Data Loss

電子郵件帳戶可以訪問大量敏感信息。 除了透過電子郵件直接發送的資料外,這些帳戶還用於存取基於雲端的基礎設施和其他線上服務。

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.

惡意鏈接

惡意鏈接是網路犯罪分子將電子郵件化為武器的一些最常見方式。 透過嵌入電子郵件中的連結,攻擊者可將收件者引導到攻擊者控制下的網頁。

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.

電子郵件安全服務的主要功能

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.

保護您的電子郵件的 7 種方法

電子郵件是網絡罪犯最常用的攻擊媒介之一,因為它簡單有效。 如果組織和其員工遵循電子郵件安全最佳做法,防範這些攻擊也很簡單,包括:

  1. 使用強式密碼:弱密碼、重複使用和洩漏的密碼是電子郵件帳戶入侵的最常見原因。 使用強大且唯一的密碼對於電子郵件帳戶的安全性至關重要。
  2. 開啟按鈕驗證 (MFA):如果攻擊者獲得了對使用者電子郵件憑證的存取權限,則受感染的帳戶可用於各種攻擊。開啟 MFA 會讓攻擊者更難執行電子郵件帳戶佔用,因為攻擊者不僅需要使用者的密碼。
  3. 部署資料外洩防護 (DLP) 解決方案:敏感資料可能會有意無意地透過電子郵件外洩。DLP 解決方案可協助識別潛在資料外洩的跡象,並在漏洞發生之前阻止它。
  4. 實施網路釣魚電子郵件過濾:雖然許多電子郵件供應商嘗試過濾掉網路釣魚內容,但某些攻擊仍會溜走。部署掃描和過濾網路釣魚內容的解決方案有助於防止這些電子郵件到達員工的收件匣。
  5. 掃描惡意附件:附件是網路釣魚電子郵件傳送惡意軟體給目標的常見方式。掃描電子郵件是否存在可疑或惡意附件,可以在這些附件到達使用者收件匣並可能感染其電腦之前,識別這些附件並從電子郵件中移除。
  6. 訓練員工:網路釣魚攻擊旨在透過誘騙使用者點擊連結或開啟惡意附件來利用使用者。員工網路意識培訓可以幫助員工識別並適當應對惡意電子郵件,從而降低成功攻擊的可能性。
  7. 執行頻繁的安全監控:網絡威脅環境不斷發展,網絡犯罪分子可能會開發新的攻擊方法或使用電子郵件針對組織開始新的宣傳活動。 監控電子郵件流量是否存在可能表明新威脅的異常情況對於偵測和回應這些攻擊至關重要。

Check Point 的電子郵件安全

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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