The Complete Guide to Email Security: Types, Threats and Best Practices

Email is the backbone of professional communication in today’s interconnected business environment. With cyber threats growing at an unprecedented pace, a robust email security solution is no longer a luxury but rather a business essential.

Email security encompasses everything, from preventing unauthorised access to sensitive information to filtering malicious content before it reaches the inbox to ensuring message integrity during transmission and storage. It refers to the measures taken, protocols, and technologies put in place to ensure secure email communication in a corporate setup.

CTOs, CEOs, and CIOs looking to strengthen their cybersecurity protocols should attend the upcoming IMC 2025 event to gain invaluable insights into AI-driven cybersecurity innovations and how it can revolutionise threat detection and automate cybersecurity processes for MSMEs in India.

Read to learn more about how robust email security can protect your MSME from advanced cyber threats that target enterprises just like yours every single day.

Types of Email Security Threats Every Business Must Know

While cloud-based email offers unprecedented advantages, there is no denying that it is prone to modern cybersecurity threats. The global email security market size had an estimated value of USD 4.68 billion in 2024. The market is forecasted to grow from USD 5.17 billion in 2025 to USD 10.68 billion by 2032, showcasing a CAGR of 10.9% during the predicted period. Source: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/

Here are some of the common types of email security threats that enterprises must defend against:

• Phishing Attacks

  Phishing attacks are one of the most prevalent cyber threats in today’s modern world. It refers to the practice where cybercriminals send deceptive messages disguised as legitimate communications from trusted sources to steal sensitive information. Over the years, these emails have become polished with believable pretexts.

  Note that over 38 million phishing attacks were detected worldwide in 2024, with nearly one million unique phishing sites worldwide in the first quarter of 2024. Source: https://www.statista.com/

• Malware and Ransomware

  Malware is software designed to steal sensitive information or gain unauthorised access to a computer. Malware can be directly attached to an email or embedded in attached files or via cloud-based storage. Similarly, ransomware is a type of malware where cybercriminals encrypt a user’s data and demand a ransom to release it.

  These attacks exploit the time-sensitive and critical nature of email communication and can be devastating financially and operationally for enterprises, especially MSMEs, as they often have limited IT resources.

• Business Email Compromise (BEC)

  BEC is a sophisticated attack that combines social engineering with deep research. It involves cybercriminals impersonating trusted parties like the CEO or other executives in a company to extract funds or sensitive information from employees. It doesn’t have malicious links or attachments and no obvious spelling errors that traditional security tools can identify. Attackers research your company’s communication style and business relationships for months before striking during peak business periods when vigilance is lowest.

Different Types of Email Security Technologies

There are different types of email security solutions that can protect your email from phishing, spam and other security threats. Here are some of the primary ways to protect your emails:

• Spam Filtering and Content Filtering

  Modern spam filtering analyses message content, sender reputation, and behavioural patterns with the help of advanced algorithms and machine learning and blocks malicious messages.

  Content filtering is more content-focused, and it blocks messages containing inappropriate content, policy violations, or potential security risks.

• Anti-Malware Protection

  Anti-malware solutions help to scan emails and embedded links to identify and mitigate threats. With the help of signature-based detection, analysis of behavioural patterns, etc., these solutions ensure that your data is protected against the latest malware variants and attack techniques.

• Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

  DLP technologies are known to detect and prevent data breaches. It prevents illicit data transfer outside of the organisation. Typically, DLP classifies, identifies, and monitors sensitive data like credit card numbers, personal identification information, and proprietary data to prevent data breaches. DLP helps MSMEs carefully handle customer data and intellectual property while complying with all the data protection regulations.

• Email Encryption

  This ensures that the transmission and storage of the message are secure. Email encryption solutions offer end-to-end protection for your emails. Today, there are advanced encryption solutions that automatically identify when a message needs to be encrypted based on message content, recipient, or predefined policies.

• Secure Email Gateways (SEG)

  Secure Email Gateways (SEG) are installed to identify and filter out malicious emails in a corporate network. They make use of tools like URL filtering, malware signatures, etc. to block malicious emails.

• Cloud Email Security

  Cloud email security like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 comes with comprehensive built-in security features like advanced spam and phishing filtering, email encryption, real-time malware detection, etc.

Why Email Security Solutions Matter for MSMEs

Cybercriminals typically attack MSMEs as they know that MSMEs may lack dedicated infrastructure and expert teams to protect their data.

Here’s why a robust email security solution is non-negotiable for MSMEs:

• Maintaining Business Continuity

  When an enterprise’s email security is compromised, it directly impacts the business continuity. This is because it disrupts supplier communications and internal coordination and hampers customer relationships.

  A robust email security solution prevents email security attacks and ensures minimum downtime even while facing sophisticated cyberattacks.

• Protecting Customer Trust

  A business faces reputational damage when there is a compromise in customer data. This also puts customer trust in danger, which is an invaluable business currency in today’s modern world.

  By investing in a robust email security solution, you can demonstrate that customer privacy and data protection are important for your business and also gain customer confidence and trust.

• Regulatory Compliance

  Businesses in India need to abide by certain data protection regulations; failure to comply with them can result in fines, legal actions and business license restrictions.

  By implementing good email security solutions, you can ensure that your business’ email practices align with all legal requirements.

• Cost-Effective Risk Management

  The cost of implementing email security is considerably lower than recovering from cybersecurity incidents. Hence, MSMEs with limited IT resources must consider investing in an email security solution to prevent email security incidents rather than recovering from expensive data breaches.

  Consider investing in a cloud-based email security solution like the one provided by Vi Business, as it wouldn’t require significant infrastructure investments or dedicated security personnel.

Implementing Comprehensive Email Security

• Assessment and Planning

  Before installing an email security system, it is important to assess current vulnerabilities and individual business requirements. Evaluate your existing email infrastructure, identify critical communication patterns and understand the specific threat landscapes affecting your enterprise.

  Keep in mind both immediate security needs and future scalability requirements while planning your email security strategy.

• Multi-Layered Defence Strategy

  Embrace multi-layered approaches that combine various protection technologies. This will protect your computer systems against various modern email threats. A multi-layered defence strategy involves encouraging employees to use strong and unique passwords, turning on multifactor authentication, implementing content filtering and training employees to use email communication smartly.

• User Education and Awareness

  User behaviour plays a crucial role in preventing successful cyberattacks. Regular training helps employees identify malicious links and emails and respond appropriately to suspicious communications. Ensure that your cybersecurity training combines theoretical knowledge with practical exercises that simulate real-world attack scenarios. This will give your employees hands-on experience of dealing with common cyber threats.

• Regular Monitoring and Updates

  Modern email security solutions offer automated monitoring systems that proactively help to identify potential issues before they impact your business operations. Regular updates are another way to ensure that there are no security gaps in your business.

AI-Driven Email Security

AI is revolutionising email security for enterprises by offering real-time detection of sophisticated threats and reducing the response time. AI algorithms are trained to identify usual patterns and anomalies in email data that are difficult to spot manually. The best part about AI-driven email security solutions is that they adapt to emerging attack vectors automatically. This means they offer future-proof security without requiring manual security updates.

Modern AI-driven email security systems promote proactive defence as they use predictive analytics to predict potential threats before they emerge.

The Takeaway

The sophisticated threat landscape calls for advanced security strategies, making robust email security solutions indispensable for uninterrupted business operations. Email security goes far beyond protection; it’s about business continuity, safeguarding customer trust and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Investing in a comprehensive email security solution that combines different types of email security technologies has become a strategic imperative for the growth of business rather than an operational expense.