Email impersonation is one of the most prevalent and effective types of phishing attacks. Why is that? Because this type of phishing email supposedly comes from someone or some company you know, so you let your guard down. “As the professional community continues to work in a remote environment, email impersonations present the perfect way for opportunistic fraudsters to take advantage of human vulnerabilities.”
The numbers for email impersonation are getting out of hand, especially for a distracted workforce. According to a survey from GreatHorn, “IT professionals are required to remediate email-based attacks daily.” That’s up 165% compared to last year. The report collected data from over 640 security and IT professionals.
How bad are email impersonation attacks? More than a third of respondents said it was their number one email threat in 2020. What makes it so bad is how effective it is. “Both people and brand impersonations remain difficult to detect as they appeal to authority and urgency, utilize a known contact name and depend on the systematic lack of education among non-technical recipients.”
The need to remediate so many emails has put a strain on every IT team. “Due to this increase, 33.6% of respondents said they need to remediate an email-based attack every day – including suspending compromised email accounts, running PowerShell scripts, resetting compromised application accounts, legal action and more.” This need for ongoing human intervention to address these malicious emails is unsustainable. So, what can an organization do?
The best way to deal with email impersonation and reduce the strain on IT services is to keep those emails out of inboxes altogether. But, is that even possible? It sure is, with cloud-based email security like that available from Phish Protection.
Cloud-based email security is the key. With cloud-based email security, emails are re-routed first to the security company where it is analyzed to see if it’s malicious. A good email security service will look for domain name spoofing, display name spoofing and malicious attachments. It will also provide real-time link click protection to thwart delayed phishing attacks.
Only after the email is deemed safe, will it be forwarded to your inbox. And if it’s deemed unsafe, it will be quarantined and you’ll never see it. And if you never see it, your IT department never has to deal with it.
Phish Protection is cloud-based so not only does it keep your inbox safe, but it’s incredibly fast and affordable to use. It requires no hardware or software to purchase and no maintenance, ever. It sets up in 10 minutes, works with all major email providers and the best part of all is the cost. It’s about 45₵ per employee per month. That’s a lot less expensive than the salary of an IT administrator.
When you’re ready to stop email impersonation in its tracks, check out Phish Protection. You can try it for free for 60 day. No credit card required.