Tips for MSPs to keep emails secure

Managed service providers (MSPs) are often responsible for helping clients and their end-users stay safe online. And as technology advances, email threats are becoming more of an issue.

Emails are a common method of communication for many businesses, and it is also where cybercriminals often choose to focus. Companies should make it a priority to ensure email security for their employees. Luckily, by following a few best practices, you can help your customers and their messages stay safe using MSPs.

Ensure end-users have strong passwords

Many times, cyberattacks begin when criminals gain access to login information. That’s why it is critical for end-users to have passwords that are difficult to guess. You may encourage your clients to implement stricter policies, including passwords that:

• Are not for any other account.
• Include lowercase letters, numbers, uppercase letters, and symbols.
• Does not include personal information, such as the names of pets or family members.

Cybercriminals often have password-guessing tools to try to determine login information. These might be able to work with thousands of words each minute for a brute-force attack. Having a strong password can provide assurance against intruders gaining access or control of your device, but your actions are also important to monitor when you are logged in. For example, watch out for clicking on malicious links that could be disguised to be a legitimate message, making spear phishing protection for your business a must-have.

Choose secure communications continuity

Today, email continuity is essential for any organization, especially if it is the most commonly used type of communication for a specific company. It’s a vital source of information about that business, and if the email goes out, the ability to get work done will be limited. However, messages can get sent through an email continuity tool if the system goes down. When the system comes back, the message on the program can be synchronized with the provider. It’s a good idea to add this to your list of offered services.

Choose the right security tools

It’s critical to help clients prevent issues with both inbound and outbound spam. Many times, companies focus on preventing inbound spam. However, outbound spam filtering prevents malicious messages from circulating in an organization or from going to others. For instance, cybercriminals might get into your system and send malicious emails to users’ contacts. That can cause many adverse effects, including the outbound gateway getting blocked because of spam messages coming from it. Plus, it might cause a business to lose customers since their security can be compromised by spam. Luckily, offering protection from outbound spam stops that from happening.

Offering training

It’s a good idea to encourage clients to offer awareness training on how to maintain a secure environment. Encourage them to update end-users’ training often to help employees identify potential cyberattacks. For example, your clients may choose to train employees on what to do if they get a phishing email. An end-user should not engage with any attachments, such as opening it or clicking on any links. That might cause the device to get malware. Instead, end-users should mark potentially suspicious messages for review by MSPs. The messages might be sent to the information technology (IT) department to be reviewed. Clients might have their users forward the suspicious email to a specific address for evaluation.