01233 223344
info@virtec.co.uk
Email hosting and support are important for businesses of all sizes. By working with an experienced provider, businesses can ensure that their email communications are reliable and secure. In addition, a good provider will offer a range of features and tools to help businesses manage their email accounts more effectively.
By taking advantage of these services, businesses can improve their overall productivity and efficiency. As a result, investing in email hosting and support is an essential part of any business’s operation.
An important but frustrating form of communication allowing information to be received almost as soon as it is sent depending on the email platform. Over the years we have all experienced an influx of emails being delivered to our inbox. Half of which are mailing lists that you don’t unsubscribe from because who doesn’t love emails regarding items you have no interest in.
Unfortunately, mailing lists are not the only problems we encounter. At some point, everyone has received spam email that is not wanted.
Even worse still is the number of mailboxes being phished or spoofed.
So, what do these terms mean and how do they affect users?
Let’s start with phishing, which does not require the use of a rod and tackle. It is an attempt to obtain your private information like your usernames, passwords, credit card details etc. As more users become aware of these attempts, criminals come up with more inventive ways to part users with their information, such as pretending to be calling or emailing from Microsoft. To be frank and honest entities like Microsoft do not have the time to phone random users claiming to be reacting to an issue reported by your Windows machine. If that were the case all Windows IT support would be controlled by Microsoft.
Next, we move on to spoofing, which sounds like something you would see at a magic show, but sadly it is another person or organisation masquerading as yourself for personal gain. Frequently this is used to extract money from your company or clients by sending emails with false information such as false bank details or gaining access to very sensitive information.
The BIG question is how we help your company to minimize these types of attacks. One way is to train staff to identify these attempts to obtain confidential data. This type of training can come in the form of security and awareness training, which allows the whole company or a select few to be tested by sending a mail campaign disguised as something else, which reports back on who clicked the link in the email. Various campaigns can be used that look as real as an actual email you might receive from Microsoft regarding your Office 365 account. This then allows the training aspect to be implemented for everyone that was tricked by the email, by running through what to look for on a potentially suspect email. This training in turn helps to protect your business from future attacks, but obviously we wouldn’t leave it at one test. By spreading them throughout the year we can make sure users are always staying vigilant.
At Virtec we would assess the best platform for your business, but for most we would recommend Office 365 for multiple reasons. Firstly, there is no large upfront cost unlike with a new physical Exchange server. Secondly, there are a variation of licenses available from just emails, emails and Office, to Microsoft Visio and a new security feature that allows some email licenses to send various types of encrypted emails to users both inside and outside of your organisation. With Microsoft constantly developing and upgrading their system and offerings the best way to secure and future-proof your system is through Microsoft Office 365.
