One of the most common ways that scammers attempt to access your business’s sensitive information is through email. Phishing, hacking, and scams can put your business’s passwords, customer information, financial accounts, and more at risk if not caught in time. Employing a robust data loss protection plan is a sound investment. Here are four ways that an email data loss protection process can keep your data safe and secure.
1. Detect Suspicious Activity
A good email DLP program can help stop scams at their source by detecting suspicious emails and activity. For emails, this can include identifying potential spam messages and phishing attacks. Your DLP can be set to quarantine or flag messages from certain senders or that contain certain phrases. Your team can then review these messages and make a decision on if the content is safe or not.
Your DLP may also be able to detect suspicious activity outside of emails. Hacking attempts, such as repeated incorrect password attempts or logins from new devices or locations, can be identified and stopped before they’re successful. Other security measures can help support this protection, including two-factor authentication.
2. Block Improper Activity
Email DLPs can also help catch improper activity in the attachments of an email. For example, incoming emails with attachments can be scanned to ensure that the attachments are safe to open. Some programs may allow you to set file size or type limits. You can double up on this type of protection through your business’s internet firewall settings.
Similarly, outgoing emails can also be reviewed to ensure that sensitive data isn’t being sent outside the company. An employee who has fallen victim to a phishing scam may believe they are replying to a legitimate email from a boss and include a file with customer or financial data. An email DLP can catch that the receiving email address isn’t who it claims to be, and stop the email before it is sent.
3. Monitor All Activity
Not all data loss occurs through attachments. Many times, scammers will ask their targets to click a link to log into what appears to be an official website. In reality, it’s a spoofed site that will capture usernames, passwords, and other private information. Scammers will then be able to use that information to access real accounts on real websites. Many email DLPs can scan incoming emails to identify these types of scams. By flagging these emails and rerouting them to a review team, your company can reduce data loss due to employee error.
Email DLPs can also monitor outgoing emails. If an employee is engaging in an improper conversation with someone outside the company, such as sending private or proprietary information to an unauthorized person, your DLP may be able to catch it. This will allow you to address the situation as you deem appropriate.
4. Support Your Employees
Data loss prevention isn’t just about utilizing the best program. It’s also about training your team to help prevent data loss as well. This means training them on best practices for identifying and avoiding common scams and phishing attempts. It also means training your team on how to work with the security features that your company uses. A well-trained team should know how to access quarantined emails for review, what a flagged email means, and what they should do if they encounter a scam attempt. A high-quality data loss prevention program and a well-trained team can support each other to help ensure that nothing gets through to harm your business.
Email is a very convenient business tool, but it can open your business up to scams and cyberattacks. Finding an email DLP that works for your company can help prevent expensive data loss. Training your team on how to identify and avoid scams can further bolster your layers of data protection. Utilize the right tools for your business, and you will help keep your data out of scammers’ hands.
