A Secure Email Gateway (SEG) is a device or software used to monitor email that are being sent and received. They provide predelivery protection by blocking email-based threats before they reach a mail server, whether on premise or on software services such as Microsoft Office 365 and G Suite.

SEGs use robust filtering technologies that block or quarantine email messages from known spam email domains, or any emails that contain harmful content such as attachments or malicious links.

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Why are SEGs important?

Email has been the number one attack vector used by hackers for over two decades, leveraged to gain access to business’ confidential information via attack methods such as phishing, malware, and account takeover.

 

Though not all SEGs are water-tight on their own. Microsoft themselves recommend the use of a third-party email security service to protect users of their Office 365 suite. Spam accounts for 53% of the world’s email traffic, and about $20 billion per year in losses – and if you’ve ever delved into the Spam/Junk folder of your email inbox, you’ve already seen email gateway security in action.

 

Email is such an effective weapon for cybercriminals due to the ease of planning and executing these attacks. Malicious messages are cheap to send, fast to distribute, and direct – landing right on the desktop of targets with minimal effort from the cyber attack actors.

 

These layers of protection help to protect businesses from email-borne cyber-attacks which are growing more targeted and sophisticated year-on-year. Even the most rudimentary SEG platform can save organisations from suffering disruption, financial loss, and damage to their reputation.

 

What do SEGs do?

They deploy a combination of filters and artificial intelligence to identify cyber-attacks, including all 13 types of email threat:

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Each of these attack types presents unique challenges to SEGs, particularly social engineering attacks such as Spear Phishing and Scamming, which can take advantage of weaknesses in an organisation’s human layer security.

 

What makes up an SEG?

  • Deployment - there are SEGs that can be implemented on premises or as a cloud service, depending on your organisations mail servers.

  • Spam Defence - a critical component of any SEG, the gateway should be able to filter out bulk spam messages using real-world email traffic.

  • Behavioural Analysis - for complete email protection, organisations need effective malware protection. High-quality SEGs use active behavioural analysis of URLs and attachments.

  • Threat Intelligence - it's key to have data & analytics to help administrators understand how they are being attacked, what tactics are being used, which group is targeting them, and even uncover which users are being attacked the most.

  • Outbound Content Control - analysing email leaving an organisation to prevent sensitive data from leaving or automatically using encryption to enforce security policy.

  • Fast Remediation - if an email makes it to a user inbox and is subsequently found to be malicious, the ability to automatically locate and remove those emails will prevent further infection.

 

 

How to Protect SEGs

Barracuda's Total Email Protection stack is the best way to defend Microsoft Office 365 mailboxes from cyber threats. 

It takes a multi-layered approach to email security that applies rigorous filtering technologies to give the most comprehensive email protection. 

The Total Email Protection service includes inbound & outbound mailbox protection to prevent data loss, domain spoofing, social engineering attempts and more. Barracuda's Total Email Protection also includes a staff awareness training service, to illuminate any weaknesses within your organisation's human layer security. 

How secure is your email gateway?