Exercise of email: Why it’s necessary and where the biggest risks are in passing data on to digital criminals
Digital data surrounds each of us – laptop, smartphone, computer in the workplace. To access data, move funds, buy or order services, verify identity, we use different ways of protection. But not everyone pays attention to the need to protect data while working with email.
On the contrary, for cybercrime, email is the perfect key to a person’s digital world. Email encryption is necessary not only to protect the email – its content and available attachments. Emails often contain sensitive information – login credentials and financial information about a person or company. A cybercriminal needs to distance himself from the account, because unauthorized access to it can cause data hijacking and access to money, resources, information.
Read more about encryption of email and how to make it as strong as possible in the encryption of email instruction, written by experts.
We will tell you where and how strong protection will be not only appropriate, but also necessary.
Where should you encrypt email?
Many believe that the quality of email protection is directly related to the postal service. As well as the presence of anti-virus and anti-spyware software. However, the most vulnerable link in the information transmission system is not the computer itself or the mail service.
The data hub – the place where data is transmitted from source to destination – is the most accessible electronic venue for cybercriminals. Among such open or weakly protected data sites for sending an email are:
- the use of Wi-Fi to work with e-mail;
- the use of public – public networks;
- use of unprotected networks – unsecured networks.
The easiest way to protect is not only to encrypt data with special services, but also to use VPN. However, even working with a secure network does not always guarantee security.
Closed working networks
Even if a secure working network is used to send emails, criminals can intercept the email. An important note – having an open or closed network scheme does not guarantee accessibility to 100% protection. Therefore, the important thing is completely different – providing data protection, rather than guaranteed security during transmission. In this case, losing data, stealing it, trying to use it unauthorized, will not lead to negative consequences.
The trick is that all information will be securely encrypted. Therefore, the time and money that attackers will have to spend to decrypt the data will be disproportionate to the result obtained. Moreover, most high-quality encryption systems periodically change their algorithms, so the data obtained by cybercriminals will not bring them any real results.