Category: Hacking

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11+ Ways to Improve Your Email Security Today

finger pointing to a padlock - improve your email security tips

Email accounts are used as the most common point of entry by hackers to get access to networks and either disrupt services, steal information, or spread malevolent software to more accounts. But, if you improve your email security, you can prevent this!

So, What Is Email Security?

Put simply, email security is a term that encompasses all the measures taken to secure access to an email account and contents of all emails of that account.

15 Ways to Improve Your Email Security

Email accounts are fairly easy to hack, simply because of the sheer number of email accounts there are. With everybody having at least one account, a simple error like clicking an infected link is often enough for them to gain access.

Coupled with a lack of knowledge, some people are easy targets, and can be the weak link for businesses or home offices to get a malware infection or lead to a security breach.

This is why it’s important to be up to date with email security measures and be able to spot hacking attempts.

Here are some of the ways you can improve your email security and help keep your personal and business data safe.

1. Use Strong Passwords

Weak passwords are one of the simplest ways to get access to an email account.

Often, people use simple passwords out of convenience, but this makes them more vulnerable. Most services won’t even let you have generic or weak passwords anymore and demand that passwords have at least eight characters, must include upper- and lowercase letters, at least one number, and one special character.

Our tips for strong passwords include:

  • Avoid using meaningful passwords – like the name of your spouse, children, or pets, birthdates, and similar. It’s best to use everyday items that don’t have much meaning. For example, look around your room or office and pick an item or two, then use them to make a password.
  • Change your password every 3-6 months. Set a reminder on your phone or work calendar to do so.
  • Avoid leaving all of your accounts logged in on multiple devices ALL of the time.
  • Don’t write your password down and stick it to your desktop screen! (it happens more often than you think!)

Think it’s hard to steal your password? Read this:

How Easy It Is To Steal Your Outlook & 365 Password

2. Use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

This puts an extra layer of security in addition to a username and password. It makes it harder for attackers to gain access. With 2FA, the user, after putting in their username and password, also has to input additional information, such as an additional PIN or password, or a security token.

3. Avoid Logging In to Free Wi-Fi and then Signing into an Email

While free Wi-Fi sounds great in theory, in practice, it’s chock-full of hazards. Using public Wi-Fi puts you at risk of being hacked, as hackers might be using the same network to gain access to other devices – if you log in to your email account, they can easily get access immediately.

If you truly need internet access out in the public, it’s best to use your phone and tether a connection instead (just make sure you use encryption while doing so).

4. Use Professional/Paid Services and Avoid the Free Ones

While free email services are convenient (for example, Gmail), they don’t have all the features you might if you’re a business. Always opt for professional and paid services (for example, G-Suite email services) as they have priority support and better security features.

5. Educate Yourself

One of the best ways to stay secure is to be aware of all the risks and ways hackers might try to get access to your email. It’s extremely important for businesses to train their staff as well, to minimise the risk of someone accidentally clicking an infected link.

6. Use Anti-Virus That Includes an Email Scanner

Anti-virus software will scan your device for malevolent activity, but it’s not a bad idea to get AV software that also includes an email scanner. Such scanners will actively scan all links and email attachments and alert you about infected items.

7. Don’t Click Links from Emails and Don’t Log In on Email Pop-Ups

If you are unsure about a link from an email, never click on it. The link might lead to a site that downloads and installs malevolent software to your device. Any pop-up window that requires you to log in to your email is likely a scam too. Always log in through the actual service.

8. Check the Original Sender

If you receive an email that seems to be a bit off, always check the sender. Often, the sender name will be spoofed to make you believe they are someone else. You can do so by hovering over the “From” to see the actual email address and not the name of the sender.

9. Help Your Provider

Every time you mark an email as spam or junk and report them, you help your provider filter the emails better in the future. This way, harmful emails will never even manage to reach the inbox.

10. Be Careful Signing Up for Things.

Using the same email for all the services – from those you use regularly to some obscure mailing lists, is always a bad idea. Always have a “throwaway” or temporary email address for services or websites where you only need one-time access.

11. Check Who Has Your Email

Never share your email on just any websites or public places. Also, avoid posting to public forums with your main email address to make sure it’s not collected and ends up on spam lists.

12. Protect Sent Emails

Use encryption services to protect all sent email. Some services even make it possible to see the email only if the recipient has an authentication code, and you can redact access at any time you see fit. We use Microsoft’s Azure Information Protection and recommend it to our clients for automatic email and file encryption.  

13. Be Careful What You Share Online

Avoid sharing personal information that could give hackers an idea on what you are using as a password! And I’ll say it again, don’t use obvious personal information as your password!

14. Run Regular Backups

With so many ransomware attacks happening lately, make sure your data is backed up regularly, just in case!

15. Be Careful About Apps

Avoid installing apps from third-party sites on your computer, browser, or phone. They are often infected with malware. Instead, only download from trusted sources, and always regularly update them.

These are all ways to improve your email security, whether you’re a personal user, have a business account, or are looking for organisational email security! Just remember, the more measures implemented, the higher the security of an email account.  

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The Different Tactics Hackers Use to Gain Access to Your Computer

We’d all like to think that hackers are spending weeks on end planning their every move to attack a business but the truth of it is nowhere near as exciting. Although this could happen to a big target, for most people it’s a lot more boring and they get ‘accidentally’ caught in the net as hackers looking to make a quick buck send out malware or ransomware hoping someone will fall into the trap.

That doesn’t mean the effects aren’t any less devastating!

So, to make sure you can protect yourself, let’s look at the various different tactics hackers use to try and steal your business’ data.

1. Relying on Human Error

We’re sorry to say that lack of education in businesses and human error by employees account for a large portion of breaches in our experience. For example, employees attempting to access internal systems from unsafe locations, using personal (infected) devices on the network, or clicking malicious links in an email. Hackers cast their net far and wide, and the likelihood is someone will click something and open the door. And that’s all they need. 

Hackers also pray on the lack of oversight from business owners on their employees. According to Keeper Securities’ State of Cybersecurity in Small & Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB) report from 2017, 59% of small businesses do not have insight into the types of passwords employees use. This means that although the company is liable for a breach, they aren’t enforcing or even aware of the security standards of the passwords in use. 

2. Phishing

Phishing is one of the most common tactics hackers use. This is usually in form of an email that is spoofed to look like it’s coming from another sender, like your bank, or ISP. It will urge you to act immediately or you might lose your account, money, or face infractions. 48% of hacks on companies last year found that phishing or social engineering were the result.

Here are the warning signs you need to look out for in a phishing email

12 Warning Signs Of A Phishing Email

3. Public/Free Wi-Fi

Public computers and Wi-Fi networks are notorious for being plagued with malicious software that “sniffs” for data packets while you are using them. You risk losing your account data as soon as you type in your password. 

4. Phone Calls

Surprisingly these still work and is still one of the tactics hackers use! Hackers have been known to ring you claiming to be your bank or an organisation you’re affiliated with and ask you to confirm details over the phone. For example, banking pins or passwords as well as talking to you about family data or information, like your mother’s maiden name to get the ‘security question’ answers or take a stab at your password. If you feel a phone call is suspicious, never hand over your data, simply tell them now isn’t a good time and hang up.

5. Weak Passwords

Lazy, generic and consequently weak passwords are the easiest way for hackers to get access to your accounts. Many small business owners admitted that, while they still have password strength policies, 68% do not enforce them. A generic or commonly used password like 12345, makes it easy for hackers to gain access to your email or computer.

Check out our article below on protecting your password from hackers:

How To Protect Your Email Password From Hackers

6. An Out-of-Date OS

While nobody likes how long OS updates take, they exist for a reason: to address flaws within the code that can potentially be exploited. Without regular updates, you enable easy access to hackers who are aware of the weak points.

7. Infected Attachments

It’s not just the links you should be wary of in an email. Masked to look like images or documents, they often carry viruses, malware, or spyware, like a keylogger that will install to your device and record your every keystroke to get your passwords that way.

8. Dodgy Devices

Be wary of those free devices being handed out to you as “freebies” in many cases, hackers can load malware or keystroke loggers on them so that when they are entered onto the computer they immediately infect it.

9. Pineapples – Spoofed Wi-Fi Points

A Wi-Fi pineapple is a fake Wi-Fi access point that has been purely set up to steal your data but it masks as public Wi-Fi. From the hacker’s point of view, they have multiple programs and software running to gain access but to the unsuspecting user, they just jump on as usual and voila, instant access to your data.

10. Unsuspecting Accessories

Your new smart lock, phone controlled thermostat, camera that is enabled to a network, card reader or any other online accessory all have access to your network. Hackers can use these as easy points of entry if they aren’t protected correctly to access your network and get to your data that way!

Unfortunately, we’ve only just scratched the surface of tactics hackers use to access your data and your files, and this is why we are firm advocators for using file protection as part of your cyber security strategy. That way, hackers can’t access the data from your files once you’ve been breached, therefore protecting the data stored within them.

To get automatic file and email encryption for small businesses using Microsoft’s Azure Information Protection, click the image below to get half off our course on udemy:

file and email encryption course image. click to take you to the course
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How “At Risk” Small Businesses REALLY Are to Cyber Attacks

busy coffee shop as a small business

Running a small business comes with a very specific set of challenges, like having limited resources, and often cyber security falls to the bottom of the list. But, the cost of a data breach, no matter the size of your organisation can be huge and the bad PR or image alone could be crippling as small businesses have to rely on reputation! 

Why Would Anyone Target Small Businesses?

Many small business owners don’t understand why their company would be an appealing target for hackers. They are small, don’t have vast funds or sensitive secrets that anyone would care about. They believe they are not big enough to be a target, so they don’t invest as heavily in cyber security as larger businesses do.

Some hackers do not target small businesses specifically but try to infect as many devices as possible, and without protective measures, backups in place, or the education, small businesses can very quickly become victims too.

The most common type of tactic that casts a wide net are ransomware attacks and more recently, cyber-attacks are becoming more targeted and specific.

The top 3 reasons why small businesses are targeted specifically by hackers are:

  1. The lack of investment into security makes it too easy for those looking to make quick money by selling details. 
  2. Small businesses often work with larger enterprises and if they’re not careful can serve as a point of entry for a large data breach.
  3. A small business is more likely to meet the hacker’s demands, such as a ransom, to get their data back because without it, their business is at a standstill. 

Cyber-attacks against Small Businesses are on the Rise

According to Keeper Securities’ State of Cybersecurity in Small & Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB) report from 2017, attacks against small and medium business owners are on the rise. A staggering 61% of small businesses that were interviewed reported they were affected by a cyber-attack. The most common type of attack included phishing or social engineering, with web-based attacks and general malware following closely behind.

What Small Businesses Should do to be Safe from Cyber Crime

Change of stance is the most crucial thing.

If small business owners continue to believe they are not a good target to hackers and believe they don’t matter, they will continue to be vulnerable to cyber attacks. Small businesses should focus on the following areas:

  • New Technology and Software – Investing in the newest software solutions can give small businesses the edge that they need to catch breach attempts early. Machine learning can detect anomalies in network traffic or credit card fraud attempts so that small businesses don’t have to pay as much attention. 
  • Employee Education – Teaching employees about cyber security lowers the risk considerably. Get them on board about it and teach them about password policies, what makes a strong password, why password sharing is risky, and signs that indicate a possible breach. Check out the TowerWatch Academy for regular courses that you might need for educating staff and using protection software. 
  • Regular Updates and Patching – Ensure all your systems are up to date and patched regularly. New patches are applied to parts of code that could have been used as points of entry before the patch which is why you should always keep up to date. 
  • Use Encryption – Encryption is a precaution in case a data breach happens. If hackers get to your data, having it encrypted will render it useless to them. 
  • Physical Security – Have surveillance in place in areas where you keep your sensitive data to avoid malicious actions from the real world.
  • Two Factor Authentication – In case a cyber attack is successful in getting credentials to log in to your system(s), a two-factor authentication will stop them from getting further than trying to log in and will immediately alert you so you can lock it down and change your passwords. 

If you need any help or support protecting yourself as a small business from cyber security attacks, join our free Facebook community for IT support for your small business.