Emails have always been vital in the business since the rise of the internet. As of 2019, there were 3.9 billion recorded email users globally. People use this platform to communicate, send important documents, and give instructions. In recent months, the use of electronic mail has grown more into importance as the world shifts to remote working systems, making it the platform for online transactions involving confidential data and money. However, as it becomes more widely used, cybercriminals have found several techniques to infiltrate emails and steal data from users.
Your organization can be protected from experiencing these attacks by investing in cyber-defense systems, including S/MIME certificates. Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, or S/MIME for short, is a technology that allows you to encrypt your emails. One might wonder, “do I still need to encrypt emails when the server is already encrypted?” S/MIME adds a layer of protection to the server’s digital certificates by protecting individual emails, if a hacker was able to access your inbox, they cannot easily read your messages. Other than this, your organization will gain the following benefits from S/MIME certificates:
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S/MIME reduces risks and losses in business.
Organizations have been the primary target of phishing attacks. The previous year, the FBI registered $1.7 billion financial losses due to BEC/EAC attacks alone, targeting mostly small and medium businesses without proper cyber-defense systems. A single attack could cause exposure of confidential information, financial loss, and even cause a business to fall.
The risk your business is exposed to is significantly reduced with the use of S/MIME. As S/MIME uses both public keys in encrypting emails and can only be decrypted by the corresponding private key, confidential information stored in emails are safe, saving your business from the damage of financial and informational losses.
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S/MIME increases your organization’s credibility.
When a company is hit by a phishing attack, it does not only affect the internal systems but also its partners, clients, and customers. These attacks are prevalent in emails, and we continue to see an increase in numbers. The shift to remote work setups made emails one of the top platforms for information gathering and payment between the business and its customer. Spoofing and phishing attacks cause reputational damage to the company. 84% of small and medium businesses became the targets of cyberattacks in 2019. You can imagine the impact on the credibility of the SMB if an attack was successful.
The use of S/MIME allows your customers to be protected. S/MIME is backed by Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) that secures your email, assuring the recipients that your email is legitimate and can be trusted.
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S/MIME allows you to establish your identity.
Identity theft is widespread in today’s time. Cybercriminals use your information to pose as an individual or an entity, customers, and even family members, deceiving colleagues in day to day transactions. S/MIME allows you to digitally sign your emails, making your identity clearly presented and differentiated from other pretentious emails. Phishing and spoofing attacks are now evolving, deceiving millions of people, but with encryption and digital signatures with PKI, your identity is kept safe.
The use of S/MIME certificates gives your business and your customers the confidence and trust that your emails are from legitimate sources and not cybercriminals. GlobalSign’s S/MIME certificates allow your business to thrive in the new normal setting, mitigating one of the biggest challenges brought by this era, that is, cyberattacks. Secure your business by speaking with us today!
To learn more about our company and the full list of products we offer, you may visit our website, or check out our product list for enterprises and Internet of Things (IoT).
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