If an attacker gets into your email, they can reset the passwords to almost everything else, read your most sensitive conversations, and impersonate you to your customers and your bank. That is why email is the number-one target - and why securing it is the highest-value thing you can do after nothing at all.
Why email is the top target
Email is the recovery method for most other accounts, the channel your team trusts, and a rich source of information about your business. Compromise it and an attacker gets a master key. Most serious business breaches start here.
The essentials
- Multi-factor authentication: the single most important control. Even a stolen password is useless without the second factor. Turn it on for every mailbox, no exceptions.
- Strong account recovery: make sure the "forgot password" path cannot be trivially hijacked - it is a common back door.
Stop others spoofing your domain
Three records let the world verify that mail claiming to be from you really is:
- SPF lists who is allowed to send email as your domain.
- DKIM adds a signature that proves a message was not tampered with.
- DMARC tells receiving servers what to do with mail that fails those checks - and reports who is trying to impersonate you.
Together they make it far harder for someone to send convincing email in your name.
Train against phishing
Most email attacks rely on a person clicking, not on breaking anything. A team that can recognize a phishing attempt is your strongest layer. Pair awareness with the technical controls above and part of a broader security baseline.
Ask us for an email security review and we will tell you what is solid and what needs attention.