Training – Casserly Consulting

The Major Points of A Secure Email Solution

It’s not out of the ordinary for employees to not know the best practices surrounding email management, but it’s something that any self-respecting employer needs to consider. How are your employees using their email, and are they putting your organization at risk? The best way to address these issues is taking a two-pronged approach involving training employees on proper best practices, as well as taking technical measures to keep the risk of a breach to a minimum.

We’ll go over some of the most viable options for keeping your email communications as secure as possible, including encryption, spam protection, and employee awareness.

Email Encryption
Encryption is extremely important for keeping your data safe from prying eyes. Encryption is easy to understand when it’s explained in terms that aren’t mind-bogglingly complex. Data that’s sent through a connection that isn’t encrypted can be intercepted. When data is sent through an encrypted connection, it’s scrambled so that it can’t be read by those who might steal it while it’s in transit. Only those who hold an encryption key can unscramble it, making it a much more secure method of sending and receiving important data. Some industries, such as healthcare and government organizations, mandate compliance standards that may include encryption to send and receive email.

Spam Protection
Employees are almost certain to encounter email hazards like spam messages and phishing attempts, and if they don’t know how to identify these dangerous messages, they could expose your organization to data breaches. This is because hackers can ask employees for various information, such as passwords, usernames, and other credentials that aid them in infiltrating your carefully laid-out defenses. The best way to keep this from happening is to keep spam and phishing messages from hitting the inbox in the first place with spam protection systems.

Phishing attempts are a bit trickier, as they will need to be handled in a careful and calculated manner. Scammers often personalize messages to optimize their odds of the message being opened or an attachment being downloaded. Therefore, you need to consider employee training to properly defend against it.

Conditioning Your Employees for Security
Your network’s security can’t be complete without taking care of the ones actually using the technology. Since your end users are going to be using the organization’s email, it’s only natural that you prepare them for the act of keeping it secure. You can provide your users with a list of best practices for them to keep in mind while going about their duties. They are the following:

Check the sender: Who has sent the message? Is it a suspicious email address that can’t be traced to any of your contacts? Does it come from a strange email domain? If the answer to any of these is in question, you might have a spam message.
Identify the intent: Hackers want you to click on their spam messages as quickly as possible. Therefore, they will often try to incite immediate action to prevent you from thinking twice.
Check the spelling and grammar: Many hackers come from countries where English isn’t the hacker’s first language, making their messages quite identifiable compared to others. If you receive messages filled with these inconsistencies, you can bet they are either unprofessional or likely a hacker.
Don’t open unrequested attachments: Attachments are a big way for hackers to spread threats, as a lot of people don’t think twice before downloading a supposed receipt or statement. Double-check who sent the attachment before downloading it.
Don’t click sketchy links: Before clicking on any links in an email, make sure it’s going where you expect it to. You can do this by hovering over the link without clicking on it. If the link goes to a weird URL or an IP address (a string of numbers and periods), it might be a phishing attempt. The destination might look legitimate and ask you to log in, but it will capture your credentials and give access to the bad guys.

Of course, the biggest thing to keep in mind is when in doubt, ask your IT department about the message. For more information on how to keep your organization safe from spam and email threats, reach out to us at PHONENUMBER.

Tip of the Week: Easy Ways to Train Your Staff About IT

You might wish that your employees know more about IT and its inner workings, and you’re not alone. SMBs often suffer from a lack of IT talent, and they might try to supplement this lack of proficiency by training employees on how to do basic computer tasks required to work effectively. Thankfully, you don’t have to rely on just your knowledge and that of your employees when it comes to maintaining your technology.

You can augment your employees’ IT knowledge with the following services offered by IT providers.

An IT Help Desk
One of the best ways to supplement your organization’s in-house knowledge of technology troubles is by taking advantage of an outsourced IT help desk. Basically, this is a phone number or live chat system that your employees can utilize when they need help with specific technology problems. This strikes a unique balance between allowing your employees to get their own support, and giving them access to help when it’s needed most; allowing them to learn more about IT without letting them perform advanced procedures on their own.

If you want to use a help desk as a training tool, you’ll want to make sure that your IT service provider is remotely accessing your employees’ workstation during this process. This helps the service provider guide them through the steps one-by-one, without letting them make big mistakes that could derail operations. Once an employee knows how to do something in particular with minimal effort, they’re less likely to waste time on the same process in the future.

When this interaction is remote, it is typically more cost effective than having a technician go on site.

Focused IT Training
Training is an accepted part of the office environment, and one of the most valuable lessons that you can provide for your employees is technology best practices. Every so often, require that your employees review basic IT protocol, such as how to make secure passwords, how to handle sensitive information, troubleshooting common technology problems, and so much more. Ultimately, your goal should be for your employees to walk out of the training session with the sense that they’ve learned something new about how best to work for your organization and how to handle its technology with care.

In fact, some IT providers can provide all-you-can-eat help desk support for end users, while providing training materials, best practices, and more. We figure that the more educated and effective your staff is, the more growth you will experience. To learn more, reach out to us at PHONENUMBER.