Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 30 | Page 30

INFOGRAPHIC Mimecast report: legacy email security systems failing to provide sufficient security protection Mimecast’s latest quarterly Email Security Risk Assessment (ERSA) has revealed thousands of known malware and impersonation attacks are getting past systems meant to protect organisations. E mail is an integral part of daily operations for most organisations, so it is important to ensure there are effective security strategies in place to manage these systems. Mimecast Limited, a leading email and data security company, has announced the availability of its quarterly Email Security Risk Assessment (ESRA), a report of tests that measure the effectiveness of incumbent email security systems. This quarter’s assessment reports that these systems missed 11,653 emails containing known malware, which should be the easiest to identify as they are detectable by commonly deployed endpoint-based anti- virus technologies. Additionally, the report noted a continued challenge of securing organisations from unknown malicious attachments, dangerous file types, impersonation attacks and even basic spam. As part of the assessment, Mimecast inspected more than 95 million emails, all of which had passed through organisations’ incumbent email security vendors. These organisations, in 20 different industries, invested millions of dollars to deploy a variety of commonly used on-premise and hybrid email security systems. 30 INTELLIGENTCIO The latest report found more than 14,277,163 pieces of spam, 9,992 emails containing dangerous file types and 849 unknown emails with malware attachments were all missed by the incumbent providers and delivered to users’ inboxes. Most notably, 11,653 known emails with malicious attachments passed through these systems, an increase of 532% in comparison to last quarter’s assessment. Impersonation attacks also continue to be a problem for organisations as 23,072 were caught, increasing 22% in comparison quarter over quarter. The report indicates the need for organisations to enhance their cyber resilience strategies for email. www.intelligentcio.com