Secure Email Services

What is a secure email service?

A secure email service is an email platform designed to provide enhanced protection for your email communications, safeguarding sensitive information from unauthorized access, interception, and cyber threats. Unlike standard email services, secure email services incorporate advanced security features such as encryption, robust authentication methods, and anti-malware protection. These services are crucial for businesses and individuals who need to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their email data. By using a secure email service, organizations can protect against a wide range of email-based threats, from phishing and spam to sophisticated cyberattacks.

Secure email basics

"Is email secure?" With the landscape of threats to email continuing to grow in volume and sophistication, that's the question every IT administrator has to answer every day.

The answer is not a simple one. The headlines are filled with stories of Fortune 1000 organizations that thought their layers of corporate data protection would keep their email system secure, only to find that a phishing or spear-phishing attack has led to a costly and embarrassing breach of corporate security.

To be able to answer the question "is email secure?" with a resounding "yes," you need a powerful and comprehensive solution for email security that adapts as quickly as the universe of threats evolves. That's where Mimecast can help.

What is a secure email service?

A secure email service is an email platform designed to provide enhanced protection for your email communications, safeguarding sensitive information from unauthorized access, interception, and cyber threats. Unlike standard email services, secure email services incorporate advanced security features such as encryption, robust authentication methods, and anti-malware protection. These services are crucial for businesses and individuals who need to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their email data. By using a secure email service, organizations can protect against a wide range of email-based threats, from phishing and spam to sophisticated cyberattacks.

 

 

Protect your organization with secure mail services

Your organization and employees depend on secure email communications. When your email system is compromised or subject to attack, the results can be disastrous. From routine spam and viruses that reduce productivity to malware or a spear-phishing attack that costs millions in lost business and damage to reputation, threats to secure email messaging are a very real and present danger.

While there are many secure email providers and products, managing them can be highly costly and complex. Installing, managing and updating disparate solutions to protect against targeted threats, viruses, data leaks and other risks can quickly overwhelm IT teams already facing shrinking budgets and resources. Mimecast provides all-in-one secure email services that eliminate the complexity and reduce the cost of protecting your email system. As a cloud-based solution, Mimecast's secure email services provide always-on, always up-to-date protection with flexible and granular email security controls.

 

Why is a secure email solution important?

Your organization and employees depend on secure email communications. When your email system is compromised or subject to attack, the results can be disastrous. From routine spam and viruses that reduce productivity to malware or a spear-phishing attack that costs millions in lost business and damage to reputation, threats to secure email messaging are a very real and present danger. While there are many secure email providers and products, managing them can be highly costly and complex. Installing, managing and updating disparate solutions to protect against targeted threats, viruses, data leaks and other risks can quickly overwhelm IT teams already facing shrinking budgets and resources. Mimecast provides all-in-one secure email services that eliminate the complexity and reduce the cost of protecting your email system. As a cloud-based solution, Mimecast's secure email services provide always-on, always up-to-date protection with flexible and granular email security controls.

What threats do secure email services protect against?

Secure email services are designed to defend against a broad spectrum of email-based threats that can compromise security and disrupt business operations. Some of the key threats these services protect against include:

• Phishing Attacks: Cybercriminals use deceptive emails to trick recipients into revealing sensitive information, such as login credentials or financial details. Secure email services include advanced filtering and detection mechanisms to identify and block phishing attempts.
• Malware and Viruses: Malicious software delivered via email attachments or links can infect systems, steal data, or disrupt operations. Secure email services scan for and block these threats before they reach the user.
• Spam and Unwanted Email: High volumes of spam can clutter inboxes and expose users to dangerous content. Secure email services use sophisticated algorithms to filter out spam and ensure only legitimate emails are delivered.
• Spear-Phishing: A more targeted form of phishing, where attackers tailor messages to specific individuals within an organization. Secure email services utilize threat intelligence and behavioral analysis to detect and prevent these highly personalized attacks.
• Business Email Compromise (BEC): Attackers impersonate executives or trusted partners to deceive employees into transferring money or sensitive information. Secure email services provide identity verification tools and threat protection to guard against BEC.
• Ransomware: This form of malware encrypts a victim's data and demands payment for its release. Secure email services prevent ransomware from being delivered through email, thereby protecting critical business data from being held hostage.
• Data Leaks: Sensitive information can be unintentionally or maliciously sent to unauthorized parties. Secure email services include DLP features that monitor outgoing emails for confidential content and enforce policies to prevent leaks.

Choosing the most secure email solutions for your organization

Selecting the right secure email solution for your organization involves evaluating several key factors to ensure the platform meets your specific security needs. Here are some considerations:

• Comprehensive Security Features: Look for a solution that offers a multi-layered defense against a wide range of threats, including phishing, malware, spam, and data breaches. Fea-tures like encryption, secure messaging, and DLP should be standard.
• Ease of Integration: The solution should seamlessly integrate with your existing email infra-structure, whether it's on-premises or cloud-based. This ensures minimal disruption during deployment and ongoing operations.
• Scalability: Your email security solution should be able to grow with your organization, han-dling increasing volumes of email traffic and evolving threats without compromising perfor-mance.
• User-Friendly Management: A secure email solution should provide intuitive management tools that allow your IT team to easily configure policies, monitor threats, and respond to in-cidents. Centralized control and reporting are crucial for maintaining security oversight.
• Vendor Reputation and Support: Choose a solution from a provider with a strong reputation for security innovation and customer support. Regular updates, threat intelligence, and re-sponsive customer service are essential for maintaining a robust security posture.
• Cost-Effectiveness: While security is a priority, the solution should also be cost-effective, of-fering a good return on investment by reducing the risk of costly breaches and minimizing the resources required for management.

Achieve the most secure email system with Mimecast

When it comes to your email system, it makes sense to work with the most secure email provider possible. Email is, after all, the leading source of attacks that lead to security breaches. Your email is constantly under threat from viruses, malware and spam as well as more serious attacks like spear-phishing, scam emails and ransomware attacks. Choosing anything less than the most secure email provider is simply not an option.

The problem: determining exactly who is the most secure email provider around. Multiple vendors claim to be the most secure email provider. But their services are remarkably similar – they offer secure storage and encryption, anti-malware and anti-spam software, and tight access control. And no email provider is perfect – there are pros and cons for each. So what's a company looking for the most secure email provider to do?

The solution: Add Mimecast to the mix.

Mimecast provides cloud-based services for email security, archiving and continuity that help to keep email safe while reducing the cost and complexity of managing business email.

As a SaaS-based service, Mimecast services can be implemented easily and without capital cost. As an all-in-one solution, Mimecast eliminates the need to manage a disjointed array of point solutions from multiple vendors. And if you have moved your primary email server to the cloud with services like Microsoft Office 365, Mimecast can help you mitigate single vendor exposure by providing additional security, redundant storage and full continuity during outages.

 

Comprehensive secure email solutions from Mimecast

Mimecast's comprehensive, scalable, enterprise-grade secure email service includes:

• Secure Email Gateway, offering sophisticated, multi-layered detection engines and intelligence that deliver SLAs for 100% anti-virus protection and 99% anti-spam protection with 0.0001% false positives.
• Targeted Threat Protection, providing defense against malicious links in e-mail and attachments that may cause employees to inadvertently reveal their credentials or to download malware and viruses.
• Secure Messaging, enabling employees to send and receive sensitive data in secure e-mail directly from their mailbox without needing access to encryption methods.
• Large File Send, providing a way to send files securely (up to 2 GB) from within an employee's mailbox application, eliminating the need for third-party file sharing services that may compromise security and compliance efforts.
• Content Control and Data Leak Protection (DLP), helping to prevent inadvertent or malicious leaking of sensitive information by scanning all outbound e-mail and blocking or quarantining messages with suspicious content.

In addition to secure email services, Mimecast also offers email archiving services, email continuity services and email search tools that let you search for email across the organization and retrieve messages within seven seconds.

Additional tips to keep email secure and private

• Implement strong password policies and encourage strong password hygiene to prevent unauthorized access to email accounts.
• Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) to add an extra layer of security, requiring users to provide multiple forms of verification before accessing their accounts.
• Educate employees about email best practices, including how to identify and avoid phishing attempts, suspicious links, and attachments.
• Establish clear and comprehensive email security policies, outlining guidelines for data handling, sharing, and storage, to promote a culture of security awareness within the organization.
• Implement a robust email security solution, such as Mimecast’s Email Security offerings.

Secure Email Services FAQs

How does secure email work?

On the surface, it seems like secure email works just the same way normal email does. However, it has one huge advantage – the added security layers in the background, which can detect and prevent sophisticated email threats before they hit the user’s inbox.

Why use a secure email service?

Using a secure email service is important if you want to safeguard your inbound and outbound communications. After all, email remains the top attack vector. Secure email services, such as Mimecast’s Email Security Services provide robust protection against common and sophisticated threats that can be delivered through email, such as phishing, malware, and data leaks, ensuring the privacy and security of email communications, while also maintaining regulatory compliance.

What is the difference between secure email and secure messaging apps?

Secure email and secure messaging applications both prioritize data privacy and data protection, but they address different communication requirements. Secure email is designed to secure email communication by encrypting messages and attachments during transmission and storage, while secure messaging apps focus on real-time, secured, and encrypted messaging. Secure messaging apps often include features such as encryption, file sharing, ephemeral messaging, and more for increased privacy and data protection during instant messaging.

What is the most secure email service?

The most secure email service is one that incorporates a comprehensive set of features designed to protect against the full spectrum of email-based threats. Here are the key features that define a highly secure email service:

• End-to-End Encryption: This ensures that email content is encrypted from the moment it leaves the sender's device until it reaches the recipient, preventing unauthorized access or interception during transit.
• Multi-Layered Threat Protection: A secure email service should include advanced threat de-tection mechanisms that guard against phishing, malware, spam, and ransomware. This typ-ically involves real-time scanning of emails and attachments, using both signature-based de-tection and behavioral analysis.
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP): DLP features help prevent sensitive information from being sent outside the organization unintentionally or maliciously. This includes scanning outgoing emails for confidential content and enforcing policies to block or quarantine risky messages.
• Identity Verification and Anti-Spoofing: To protect against impersonation attacks like Busi-ness Email Compromise (BEC), secure email services should include features such as DMARC, DKIM, and SPF, which help verify the authenticity of email senders.
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Requiring users to provide multiple forms of verifica-tion before accessing their email accounts adds an extra layer of security, significantly reduc-ing the risk of unauthorized access.
• Large File Encryption: Secure email services should allow the encrypted transfer of large files, ensuring that sensitive data can be shared without relying on third-party services that may not meet security standards.
• User Awareness and Training Tools: The most secure email services often include tools for educating users about phishing and other email threats, helping to foster a culture of securi-ty within the organization.
• Compliance and Regulatory Support: A secure email service should help organizations meet industry-specific regulatory requirements, such as GDPR or HIPAA, by offering features like automatic email archiving, secure data storage, and audit trails.
• Seamless Integration and Scalability: The service should integrate easily with existing email systems, whether on-premises or in the cloud, and be scalable to accommodate the grow-ing needs of the organization.

By choosing an email service that offers these features, organizations can ensure that their email communications are protected against current and emerging threats, while also maintaining compli-ance and supporting business continuity.