We all use email all day long. No matter what industry you’re in or where you are working around the globe, you’re more than likely using email to communicate, work and socialize. Most of us check our email multiple times a day – the average is eleven times per hour! If you’re like me, which is about 84% of you, you keep it open in the background. Here, we’re going to break down the top ten reasons why keeping your email protected is absolutely critical in 2022.
#1 – Analysts Say Attacks Are on the Rise
Multiple sources from multiple outlets have warned us that attacks are on the rise. They rose in 2021 and they’re only set to continue to grow. In fact, the last year has been a record-breaking year for cyberattacks. The number, intensity and variety of these attacks is expected to increase in 2022 as cybercriminals continue to devise new strategies to launch sophisticated attacks.
#2 – Email is the Easiest Entry to Your Company
Over 333.2 billion emails are sent each day with the average employee sending and receiving over 300 a day. That means that over 3.5 million emails are sent per second. And what about the average employee’s inbox? 85% of those emails hitting their inbox is spam. Guess what, that makes every employee in your company perfect targets for cyber criminals. Fraudulent emails can easily sneak in with the myriad of other emails your employee gets.
#3 – Traditional SEGs Don’t Catch All the Threats
This is sad but completely true. Traditional SEGs can miss up to 65% of zero-hour and spear phishing email attacks. That leaves you and your company exposed to threats. More importantly, that should leave you on the hunt for a better way to secure emails.
#4 – Email Attacks Lead to Ransomware Attacks
Over 99% of email attacks lead to ransomware attacks. Unfortunately, clicking that link results in a ransomware attack. Now your company is out major money. The average ransomware attack cost companies $2.2 million last year. I don’t have an extra two million dollars lying around so that’s a really scary number.
#5 – Cyber Criminals Are Using Legitimate Sites/Services
An employee trusts that they are safe using a legitimate service like Microsoft 365, Outlook or LinkedIn. The get a message via one of these channels, open the email and click a link that looks to be trustworthy because they’re using a known service and then the cyber attack hits them.
#6 – The BYOD and Remote Workforce Continues
Thanks to the Covid pandemic, most of us work from home and/or have BYOD workforces; meaning that not all of your employees have an IT team to help monitor and educate against these potential attacks. We trust that every employee working from home or the local coffee shop is being safe, and cyber criminals know that making this new lifestyle an easier target for email cyber attacks.
#7 – Email Plays Key Role in Communication and Truly is the Main Source of Comms
Most of us rely on email as our main source of communication both internally with teammates and externally with prospects or clients. Email is cheap (sometimes free), easy to use and is preferred by the general public as the main source of today’s business communication.
#8 – Different Types of Attacks via One Channel (phishing, attachments via email)
Because email is the most popular channel for communication, there are multiple ways to use it as a cyber criminal. You could send a phishing email with a link, or send an email with a malicious attachment. This makes email security even more harried. Employees must now be able to identify multiple types of attacks.
#9 – Email is Used to Transmit All Types of Data
Email is used to transmit personal information to your HR department or sales information between account owners and customers. Seeing as it’s the preferred communication channel as mentioned previously, we use it all day to send all and any type of data, sensitive or otherwise. All of this data needs to be protected.
#10 – You Need Complete Email Protection
With all of these aforementioned issues, you need COMPLETE email protection. Some companies patch up holes that attacks sneak through by using multiple email protection services. What if you only needed one solution for your Microsoft 365 email environment? That sounds great, right? SlashNext Email Protection for Microsoft 365 offers just that – complete email protection no matter where your employees are located or how many emails they get and send. I mean, 333.2 billion emails is a lot!