Security News > 2020 > February > Layering diverse defenses is crucial for stopping email attacks

Despite heading a company that provides a technological solution for stopping targeted email attacks, Evan Reiser, CEO of Abnormal Security, knows that technology is not the complete answer to the malicious email problem.

"Some businesses are giving up on technology and defaulting to an awareness-based security program for detecting email attacks, but that sets them up for failure. Our brains are wired to look for patterns and repeat processes, so for something that we do daily like email, it's only a matter of time before an employee accidentally clicks a link from a 'trusted' company," he told Help Net Security.

Forcing employees to dedicate a good chunk of each working day to evaluating emails for signs that it might have been sent by a bad actor is not good for business and not good for the employees, he opined: companies must marry training and technology together to build a comprehensive approach to protecting against email-based attacks.

"There have been massive strides in the industry regarding training and awareness. There are a lot of great organizations that will provide security training as a service. These offerings teach employees to look for tell-tale clues such as emails from unknown senders, spelling errors, bad links, and inconsistent email addresses," Reiser noted.

For many employees and in many organizations, falling for an email attack still carries a stigma, but companies should work on minimizing it, as well on sharing the lessons learned.

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