Protecting your business from email-based threats has never been more critical in today’s digital landscape – with email attacks costing organizations over $1 million on average! A million dollars per email attack is a massive cost that can sink many small businesses.
So what’s the solution? Something called a Secure Email Gateway (SEG). An SEG is essential for any business’ cybersecurity strategy in 2024 – a robust, effective, up-to-date SEG can drastically mitigate the impact of a cyberattack via email. According to recent IBM security research, organizations with strong email security measures reduce their breach costs by an average of 28.5%.
So what is a Secure Email Gateway anyway? And how do you set one up? Let’s dig in.
What Is A Secure Email Gateway?
A Secure Email Gateway acts as your organization’s first line of defense against email-based threats, functioning as a security checkpoint between your email systems and the outside world. In its simplest terms, it’s basically a type of firewall that analyzes actors that would enter your network via email servers and then makes a decision on how to react to that connection.
A good Secure Email Gateway will have a robust catalog of data to call upon when making decisions about allowing or denying access to your emails. This data is predicated on other organizations like yours, as well as your own organization’s individual needs. Once it has made a decision on whether to allow or deny traffic, it sorts the emails via a filter – allowing the good emails and blocking the bad.
This sophisticated solution analyzes and filters both incoming and outgoing emails, protecting your organization from various threats while ensuring regulatory compliance. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) emphasizes that email security gateways are crucial for preventing sophisticated phishing attacks and business email compromise.
Key Components of a Secure Email Gateway
What are the key components of a secure email gateway? The main components of a good SEG are similar to a good air conditioning system: a detection system and a filter. The detection system analyzes the traffic, and the filter chooses whether the emails are allowed or not.
Modern SEGs leverage advanced threat detection capabilities. The main ones that you’ll see in any SEG include anti-spam filtering, malware scanning, and phishing protection – but it can go far beyond that. Phishing is perhaps the most dangerous of these current iterations, so you’ll see a lot of weighting toward protecting against that particular methodology.
Furthermore, how SEGs work are constantly changing. Gartner’s latest email security report, SEG systems utilize machine learning algorithms and real-time threat intelligence to identify and block suspicious emails before they reach your inbox.
Today’s SEG solutions incorporate sophisticated features like:
- Sandboxing for safe attachment analysis
- URL protection with real-time scanning
- Dynamic threat intelligence feeds
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP) capabilities
SEG Implementation Best Practices
Choose the Right Deployment Model
As always with IT, it’s essential you choose the right model that fits your business, as very few of these are one-size-fits-all solutions.
Organizations can select from three primary deployment options:
- On-premises deployment for maximum control
- Cloud-based solutions for scalability
- Hybrid implementations for balanced flexibility
All of these have pros and cons. We always recommend consulting with your internal IT team or with an external expert who can help you identify the right solution for your business.
How to Set Up Your SEG
The good thing about SEGs is they are actually rather easy to set-up. You basically setup the SEG and then train your employees and establish policy – and the SEG takes care of the rest!
Step 1: Hardware and Software Setup
Install and configure your SEG according to your organization’s security policies and compliance requirements.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines recommend implementing these security controls:
- Spam filtering thresholds
- Malware protection protocols
- Content filtering rules
- Email encryption standards
Step 2: Policy Implementation
Establish clear security policies that address:
- Inbound email filtering
- Outbound data protection
- User access controls
- Compliance requirements
Ongoing Management
Now that your system is up and running – how do you make sure it operates as well as it should? Considering the 24/7 nature of cyberattacks, this is a critical element in having a robust SEG.
Monitoring and Maintenance
Regular system monitoring is crucial for optimal performance. Partner with a managed IT service provider to implement these practices:
- Monitor email traffic patterns
- Review quarantined messages
- Update threat intelligence feeds
- Maintain software patches
Security Protocol Integration
Microsoft’s Security Best Practices recommend incorporating these industry-standard email security protocols:
- Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
- DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
- Domain-based Message Authentication (DMARC)
Advanced Protection Features
What other features do you need? Here are some more advanced features that are coming online and becoming more commonplace by the day.
AI-enhanced Threat Detection
Modern SEGs employ multiple layers of protection, with research from Cisco’s 2023 Email Security Report showing that AI-powered detection can prevent up to 99.9% of email threats:
- Advanced anti-spam algorithms
- Zero-day threat protection
- Impersonation detection
- Business email compromise prevention
Compliance and Reporting
As always, KPIs are essential for analyzing the success of your SEG. Make sure whatever SEG solution you go with has the following:
- Comprehensive audit trails
- Compliance reporting capabilities
- Data retention policies
- Incident response procedures
Stop Phishing Before It Starts
The biggest boon an SEG provides is its ability to kill even the possibility of your employees opening a malicious email. Considering how many attacks occur via phishing attempts (just go to your local post office and wait around a while – you’ll hear them rebuff a phishing scam in no time), an SEG eradicates the most effective part of a phishing email: the human element.
By filtering out malicious emails before they can even get to their suspected targets, SEGs are wildly effective at clamping down cyberattacks that are perpetrated upon your unsuspecting employees. Don’t believe us? Forrester’s latest cybersecurity analysis suggests that organizations implementing comprehensive email security solutions see a 60% reduction in successful phishing attempts.
Ready to strengthen your email security? Contact our team to learn how we can help implement and manage your Secure Email Gateway solution.
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