TECH TALK
to interrogate their inbox and
take necessary steps to protect
themselves and their organisation
from cyber attacks. Humans are the
weak link in the cyber security chain,
so businesses need modify their
approach to cyber security in order
to evolve the corporate mindset
towards one of cyber resilience.
With increasing network
speeds and data traffic
across networks, are
enterprises adequately
investing in pre-emptive
security precautions and
monitoring tools to best
protect email data?
Early this year, we released the
results of our new global research
study: Mimecast Business Email
Threat Report 2016, Email Security
Uncovered. The survey of 600
IT security professionals, shows
that while 64% regard email
as a major cyber security threat
to their business, 65% don’t
feel fully equipped or up to date
to reasonably defend against
email-based attacks. One-third of
respondents also believe their email
is more vulnerable today than it was
five years ago.
BRANDON BEKKER
Managing Director,
Mimecast MEA
migration and mobility is the use of
separate and fragmented platforms.
Businesses tend to bolt new products
and services onto their existing email
infrastructure in order to secure their
environment from evolving cyber
threats. The risk is that the platforms
don’t always integrate seamlessly and
therefore can create gaps where cyber
criminals can get in.
Mimecast makes use of a single
integrated platform which enables
us to evolve our products constantly
to counteract the evolving world
of cybercrime and better serve our
customers’ needs. Our layered security
tools makes use of best-of-breed
technology and is adaptive in response
to new threats safeguarding our
customers before they are impacted
and help to defend organisations and
users from attacks.
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INTELLIGENTCIO
Mobile users access their emails
without protection from the usual
firewalls that many businesses use to
secure their PCs, and often use free
and unsecured wi-fi when working
away from the office.
Mimecast’s Targeted Threat
Protection is a suite of advanced
security products and includes URL
Protect, Attachment Protect and most
recently, Impersonation Protect. URL
Protect screens each hyperlink when
clicked, across all devices, enabling
us to analyse the destination of the
hyperlink and determine whether the
site it directs to is malicious.
Implementing advanced security
software does help, but Mimecast also
advocates the building of a ‘Human
Firewall’. This educational layer
encourages all users in an organisation
Of the 600 surveyed, just 35%
feel confident about their level of
preparedness against data breaches.
Of the 65% who don’t feel fully
prepared against future potential
attacks, nearly half experienced such
attacks in the past, indicating that
they don’t feel any more protected
following an attack than they did prior.
Budget and C-suite involvement
were the biggest gaps found
between the most and least
prepared respondents. Among
the IT security managers who
feel most prepared, five out of six
say that their C-suite is engaged
with email security. However, of
all IT security managers who were
polled, only 15% say their C-suite
is extremely engaged in email
security, while 44% say their C-suite
is only somewhat engaged, not very
engaged, or not engaged at all.
www.intelligentcio.com