CYBER SECURITY | 5 MIN READ
Consistent and automated data backups are a cornerstone of efficient business operations. When your network goes down, you may have to restore it to your most recent backup to avoid any data loss. But what about when your email server fails? That's where email continuity comes in. Keep reading to learn what email continuity is, a comparison of top brands, and more.
[Quick Summary] Email continuity redirects resources to a failover server in the event that your email server goes down to allow you to continue receiving and sending emails using your normal email address.
For more insight and see a comparison of top email continuity brands, keep reading!
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Other Ways to Protect Your Data
As an Atlanta-based Managed Service Provider, we assist our clients in installing comprehensive email continuity services among other hardware and software to secure their corporate data.
We aim to use our cyber security expertise to educate our audience about email continuity and arm them with the tools necessary to make informed business decisions. So what exactly is email continuity?
Email continuity acts as a backup email system to redirect resources to a failover server in the event that your email server goes down.
This allows you to continue receiving and sending emails using your normal email address. Then, once a connection with your mail server is restored, you receive a list of all the emails sent and received during the downtime.
Many email continuity services also include bundled email security features that help filter out spam, phishing schemes, and viruses.
The following comparison of top email archiving software providers Mimecast, Proofpoint, Barracuda, and SolarWinds has been sourced from a mix of customer and third-party product reviews.
Any of these brands could be a good fit for your business. When evaluating various email continuity providers, look past price to really examine which features your business needs and which it simply wants. The right provider will have a healthy balance of both.
Additionally, examine their customer service offering. While a software may seem appealing, if issues arise and customer support is lacking or non-existent, that could severely hinder productivity within your business.
While email continuity services can protect email data from being deleted or lost during a server crash, your data is still not protected from malicious phishing emails or those containing malware and spam.
Email filtering is a software that independently analyzes incoming emails for red flags that signal spam/phishing content and automatically moves those emails to a separate folder.
Most major email providers have spam filters built in that move questionable emails to a "Junk" or "Spam" folder. Sometimes, these folders have a setting enabled that automatically deletes all emails in this folder after a specified period.
Spam emails are usually more of an annoyance because they're trying to sell you a product or persuade you into taking some type of action like donating to a cause.
On the other hand, phishing emails pose more of a danger to the security of your personal information. Once personal information such as account logins or credit card information is taken, your personal accounts can be hacked or you can become a victim of financial fraud.
There are platforms whose services can be used to monitor for and flag phishing emails. These filters add an extra layer to your email security than just having spam filters enabled.
RELATED: What is Email Filtering and How Does it Work?
Phishing schemes are one of the most common vectors for data breaches. All it takes is one employee falling for a phishing scheme, which is why employee phishing education and testing are key.
Educating employees about cyber security from the day they're hired helps build a company mindset around the importance of cyber security.
Educational pamphlets or short courses on cyber security can be used the first week of employment for new hires to get them up to speed on your company's cyber security policy and educate them on security topics they may not have previously known about.
Monthly company cyber security newsletters can serve as an informative and engaging way to constantly educate your employees about the latest cyber security threats as well as a way to share tips on staying safe online.
Phishing tests are fake phishing emails that are sent to all employees with the goal of seeing which employees fall for the attack by clicking on links or downloading files that are embedded in the email.
If employees fall for these phishing attempts then you can send them through cyber security training, again. We recommend conducting this test quarterly.
RELATED: Cyber Security Awareness Training for Employees [Tips]
While email continuity services are a great way of protecting your email data in the event that a server goes down, the rest of your network's data needs to be secured too.
A Managed Service Provider (MSP) can work with your business to implement and monitor a layered approach to cyber security.
Usually, an MSP's first task will be to perform a network audit to identify security gaps and build a roadmap to success. This roadmap usually involves securing your current infrastructure and installing new hardware and software when necessary.
Once your network is secured, MSP's will use a variety or remote monitoring platforms to quickly identify and remedy issues that arise, such as network downtime and cyber threats.
The right Managed Service Provider will minimize network downtime, rebuff cyber threats, streamline business processes, keep your business compliant with data privacy regulations, and more.
As a metro-Atlanta based Managed Service Provider with healthcare clients, our diverse offering includes:
RELATED: Who is a Good Fit for Managed IT Services?
Email continuity services better secure your data in the event that your email servers go down. Use this article as a conversation starter about email security in your office.
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