Today your organization’s weakest data security vector is arguably your email channel.  Since the start of COVID and the huge move to remote work, email volume has increased by 83% across all types of companies.[1] Along with massive growth in email usage there has been a dramatic growth in data loss through email.  The outcome is irreparable damage to many companies’ reputations, business advantage and ultimately their bottom line.

Email is the most popular threat vector for attackers to use for delivering malware to an organization. Email is also a direct line of contact between users and cybercriminals, leading to billions of dollars of fraud and business email compromise every year.”

IDC, WORLDWIDE CONTENT INSPECTION FORECAST, 2021–2025: THE GREAT CLOUD AND WEB CONVERGENCE, DOC # US48208521, SEPTEMBER 2021

Some examples of data loss through email:

• Innocent cooperation with bad actors.  Honest employees are unintentionally participating in breaches by carelessly clicking on illegitimate URLs or opening well written socially engineered attachments.  Even the most careful employees can fall prey to giving out files and data in response to the uptick in this type of activity.
• Human error.  Even the most careful employee have sent emails containing sensitive data either to the wrong recipient or sending the wrong file.
• Malicious insiders.  Actually a smaller percentage than the other two but with enormous potential for damage to an organization.  These tend to be the scariest of breaches.  They know exactly the sensitive data and files that would be most damaging if sent to external competitors, news sources, and websites or simply to their own personal email for later personal gain.  These users often have the legitimate rights to access the data/files they are emailing out. 

The key to secure email: Data Loss Prevention

The common approach to securing email is to focus squarely on some type of email hygiene to protect against attacks through phishing, virus, malware, spam and anti-spoofing for example.  These are all important but they lack the most important focus – the need to focus on the data itself that could be lost through email. 

It’s imperative that organizations have strong visibility and control into their outbound email to protect intellectual property from targeted attacks as well as accidental exposure. The technology that accomplishes this is Data Loss Protection (DLP).

According to IDC:

“The past 24 months have seen a renaissance in the data loss technologies market. Manual and arcane classification techniques are being replaced by machine learning and automation. Context has become the great enabler. The effectiveness and efficiency of the solutions have gotten better.”[2] 

Email security combined with all the new advances in DLP that discovers, protects, and controls sensitive information is essential in controlling the important email vector. Many organizations have some type of email hygiene in place which is a very good thing, but combining this with an enterprise grade, modern, comprehensive DLP solution is an imperative to secure the email channel. 

Forcepoint’s DLP Everywhere strategy for securing email

Forcepoint is widely recognized as the leader in enterprise grade DLP solutions.  Our focus is on providing what we call “DLP Everywhere” – giving visibility and control everywhere your people work and data resides.  We start with a focus on unmatched data identification and policies.  Forcepoint DLP provides over 1,500 predefined policies—three times the number of pre-defined policies and templates than any of the leading DLP competitors.  This means fast, simplified deployment covering all the most important policies for data identification today.  Out of the box policies and classifiers include:

• Major regulations for compliance such as GDPR, OSHA, HIPA, LGPD and many more
• Important data types for all major verticals such as finance/banking, healthcare, retail, public sector, etc.
• Policies span across 83 countries as well as the state regulations within each of the countries.

In addition to extensive out of the box policies and classifiers, as mentioned before we give our customers control wherever their employees work.  This means that our DLP not only is effective for email but also for web, network, cloud and endpoints.  Because of this – one policy can be created that can “rule them all,” securing every critical channel everywhere data resides either at rest, in motion or in use.  With Forcepoint’s leading DLP you can also increase data security admin efficiency by dramatically reducing the number of false-positive incidents through email, saving your organization significant time and money. 

See today how Forcepoint's DLP for Cloud Email and Cloud Email Plus can protect your organization from serious data loss through the email vector.  Check out additional resources like the DLP for Cloud Email Solution Brief or the Forcepoint DLP for Cloud Email product page.  Or sign up today for a free demo of our DLP for Cloud Email product.

Kevin Oliveira