KeyTalk launches a safer email campaign together with its partners

It continues to be the ‘Achilles’ heel of IT security in every organisation or business – the incoming email messages intended for staff members. For 86% of business users it remains the most important way to communicate with clients, prospects and suppliers. Globally, over 300 billion emails are sent on a daily basis.

Isn’t email safe then?

Not many people know that almost all email in the world is still being sent according to the MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) protocol, the first version of which dates back to June 1992. The MIME protocol isn’t designed as a ‘safe’ protocol, which is why Secure/MIME or in short S/MIME was introduced in 2002.

The most important shortcomings of emails based on MIME;

• The receiver doesn’t have any proof of the identity of the person who sent the message.
• The receiver doesn’t have any proof that the message hasn’t been altered after it has been sent, by someone other than the sender.

Therefore, it’s not surprising that, since 2017, ‘Business Email Compromise’ (BEC) is the biggest global IT security threat. Also see the latest FBI Cyber Crime rapport on this topic.

 Not much is known about the security of email

During a specific KeyTalk campaign in the 1^st quarter of this year, it became clear that many IT and IT security managers indicated that, besides specific anti-malware and other email inspection tools, they didn’t give particular attention to the protection of business email. So many didn’t know whether their email domain was vulnerable to ‘spoofing’, where people falsely identify themselves using an email address from that specific domain.

That’s why KeyTalk is launching an information campaign together with selected partners.

In the coming months, KeyTalk will launch an information campaign on the safer use of email together with selected partners in various countries. During multiple webinars and seminars particular emphasis will be placed on:

• How to assess the IT environment of clients on the vulnerability for abuse of business email.
• Which steps can be undertaken to improve the security of the business email. This concerns, among others:
  • Correct configuration of DKIM, SPF and DMARC.
  • The use of Secure / MIME digital certificates.
• Which services the partners can offer together with KeyTalk aimed at improving the security of the email environment.

So keep an eye out for invites from us or one of our partners in the context of ‘Safer Email’ in the coming period.

Of course you can also contact us directly, we will be happy to help you together with our partners!

The KeyTalk Team