Protecting Email Attachments: Best Practices

Email has changed the way business communication is done, with easier and faster sharing of information. Yet, as it goes with most things that are convenient, convenience always comes at a risk — especially in the case of email attachments. If you work with attachments, it is certain that cybercriminal will use email attachments as the medium for your malwares or other forms of phishing and information disclosure all the time. This blog contains the best practices for email security including secure email attachments and how to save you & organization from potential threats.

Risks in Email Attachments

Attachments are one of the most vulnerable mediums for cyberattacks. This is very important to be aware of email attachments risks for better prevention and protection.

• Malware Distribution: Attachments can have embedded viruses, worms, and trojans Malicious software These can cause mayhem, loot confidential data, or open it to unwanted guests.
• Phishing Attacks: Phishing is a form of social engineering attack, which aims to trick individuals into revealing personal or confidential information by providing a fraudulent e-mail or website.
• Ransomware: A program that has the ability to hold personal data for ransom by encrypting files on a computer or network.
• Data Breach Risk: If proper protections are not in place, sensitive information contained within attachments may be intercepted or accessed by unauthorized parties.

Common Attachment-Based Attack Examples

• File Extension Spoofing: Malicious files are given benign extensions like.pdf or.docx. A small size may await the download to operate, as these are heavy data files!
• Document files contain macros: This could be documented in Microsoft Office (Word or Excel, etc.) as a script within the document.

Determining Safe vs Malicious Attachments

Identifying and separating the wheat from the chaff of good vs bad attachments — The cornerstone of any email security.

• Check the Sender: Look at the email from send address But more often, cybercriminals simply use email addresses that look very similar to legitimate ones.
• Check the file extension: Examine file extensions; beware of unexpected attachments, especially those with an executable file type (e.g., .exe, .bat, or .cmd). These are especially dangerous.
• Unexpected Attachments: If you receive an attachment by email that does not sound familiar to you or with a file name that sounds vague to you.

Tip: Email filters use an algorithm that can distinguish malicious attachments in order to avoid a huge amount of data loss.

Safe Methods to Send Attachments

When sending collaboration via email attached files, it should be done bearing in mind that this may present all sorts of security hazards.

• Encryption: It is always advisable to encrypt sensitive attachments before you send them. It effectively stops the roadside hacker from being attacked.
• Password Protect: Encrypt sensitive documents and send passwords separately (not within the email itself).
• Secure File Sharing Services: Instead of directly attaching files, use secure file-sharing services which only provide access to whom you intend the recipients should be.
• Compress Attachments: This is another most common way of protecting your attachments as you can zip files by compressing them and that reduces the risk during transmission.

Tools and Technologies to Secure Attachments

To ensure safe email practices, embedding restricting access to email attachments technique becomes mandatory for any organization looking forward to the safekeeping of their emails.

• Anti-Malware Solutions: Use vigorous anti-malware solutions which scan emails and their attachments for potential threats.
• Secure Email Gateway: Require a secure email gateway in place to automatically filter and block suspicious attachments before they have the chance to get in front of the end user.
• Protect data about access control via DLP technology that stops unauthorized attachments per email.
• Office 365 Secure Email: Use encrypted messaging software that keeps your emails and any attachments secure during transfer from origin to destination.

Popular Tools Include

• Firewalls: Rent a firewall is the most powerful action to reinforce staff health-related emails. Firewalls are also able to help block malicious emails in and out of your network.
• Content Filtering Services: They analyze incoming attachments and prevent some potentially malicious software.
• Sandboxes: Employ sandboxing to safely open and test attachments in a controlled execution space to search for suspicious activity.

But, in the end: Attachments are well guarded. With the nature of today’s cybersecurity posture, attachments are an obvious vector that threat actors would be expected to exploit, making rules such as emailed attachment recommendations some of the must-haves in any organization. There are 3 things you need to use secure email attachments: awareness, technology, and procedures. This includes using encryption, sender verification, trusted scanning tools and technologies that reduce your risk. Consider leasing firewalls, servers, and routers instead of buying if this will improve your security as these are an upfront hardware investment that can help in providing another layer of protection against some type of threat. Prioritizing email attachment protection and knowing the threats can help companies to protect their data, and secure their communications.

Updated Threats and Attachment Protection Technologies

As such, it is important to be vigilant and updated with the most common threats of today, as well as the defenses that are out there against attachments. By educating and training security measures against cybercriminals spam protection can secure businesses against these threats.