In 2023, more than 75% of cyberattacks recorded by the Sophos X-Ops Incident Response indicated that small to medium businesses globally were the targets of threat actors. The same research concluded that ransomware, amongst other threat vectors such as Credential Harvesting, had the greatest impact on these businesses.
By Shaun Gordon, chief security officer at Duxbury Networking
It is commonly known that users tend to be the Achilles heel in any organization and with the rise of these popular attack methods, users are being increasingly targeted via their Email.
To lessen the attack surface of these companies, it is highly recommended that they adopt an Advanced Email filtering solution. This is true regardless of the company size to remain within compliance of local regulatory bodies. A great example of this is Sophos Email, which offers a multi-layer defence against threats whilst seamlessly integrating with popular SaaS providers such as Google Workspace and Office 365.
Social Engineering methods such as Phishing have become increasingly more difficult to detect by end users, adding to this complexity Hackers are now making use of AI tools such as GenAI to mimic legitimate emails, tricking innocent users into divulging trade secrets which could be used to harm the organization. Defensive Security measures must therefore be layered and up to the increasingly difficult task of filtering these emails designed to infiltrate the users’ inboxes.
These defensive layers include being on the lookout for Suspicious content, malicious URLs, attempts at impersonating a person in authority and blocking malicious content attached or embedded into the email itself.
Continuous Monitoring
Even the most advanced protection has limitations and is susceptible to abuse from the users attempting to bypass the controls in place, it is not uncommon that a once innocent URL in an email can become malicious due to DNS poisoning after delivery. If the right defensive solution is deployed, it will continuously monitor each user’s inbox looking for potential issues and removing them.
But Phishing attempts is just one layer of a robust solution, in addition to preventing Social Engineering attempts, the correct solution should be filtering for Malware that may be embedded in the body or within an attachment.
Sophos, leveraging telemetry gathered from Antimalware, Firewalls and its vast Data Lake globally inspects each email looking for suspicious behaviour and anomalies from common baselines preventing Zero-Day attacks (commonly described as an Attack never seen globally).
Cloud Integration
SaaS has increasingly become a popular option for companies of all sizes for mail delivery, popular options are Office 365 and Google Workspace, as these offerings are found primarily within the cloud, the security solution in question should have seamless integration with popular services and have the increased granular control that can assist preventing Business Email Compromise attacks, which are often used to perform “Whaling” attacks which are aimed at high profile executives in an organization.
Whilst most popular Email security solutions require additional licensing for the firewalls inline, Sophos Email can operate as a Stand-Alone service, meaning you only require the Sophos Central Email Protection licenses without the addition cost of a physical appliance.
Regulatory Compliance
Beyond the usual phishing and malware protection, companies also need to ensure their sensitive data remains safeguarded. Whether dealing with financial data, personal information, or intellectual property, losing sensitive information can be catastrophic for a business especially when looking at financial fines and reputational damage. This is where Sophos Email offers advanced Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies to prevent accidental or intentional data leaks.
It works by scanning all outbound messages and attachments for predefined sensitive data types, such as credit card numbers or personally identifiable information (PII). If any data is detected that violates the policy, the system can block the email or trigger specific actions to prevent it from leaving the company. The solution also includes encryption features. By offering multiple encryption options, Sophos ensures that all sensitive data sent via email is protected, reducing the risk of interception during transit.
Centralised Management
Adding to the powerful threat management that is offered, this is all leveraged using Sophos Central, which offers an intuitive single pane of glass management, giving your IT team insight into the performance of your security products offered by Sophos, decreasing the administrative overhead required to manage your Email protection.
Sophos Email also features extensive reporting capabilities, including message histories, advanced threat summaries, and data loss prevention violations. These reports provide insights that allow IT teams to respond proactively to potential issues and continually fine-tune their security measures. By centralising threat intelligence and simplifying management, Sophos Email allows businesses to maintain extensive security without placing an excessive burden on IT resources.
With cyberattacks becoming more frequent and sophisticated, South African companies need adaptable solutions that can protect their environments. One of the best ways to do so is by adopting a multi-layered email security platform that blocks phishing attempts, neutralises malware, and protects sensitive data.