Office 365 Email Security

Microsoft does provide a reasonable level of protection against spam, phishing, malware, and ransomware with Office 365, but for many organizations a reasonable level of security is simply not good enough.

In October 2018, Microsoft released Q1, 2018 figures for Office 365 which showed that globally there are 155 million active Office 365 users. That number is growing at a rate of around 3 million a month. That makes Office 365 a huge target for cybercriminals and Office 365 is under constant attack.

All it takes for an attack to succeed is for an employee to open an infected email attachment or click a link in a phishing email. Such an action will give an attacker access to the Office 365 environment or will result in malware being installed on the network. It is therefore essential that threats are identified and do not reach end users’ inboxes.

Email Security for Office 365

By default, Office 365 is protected by Microsoft’s first tier level of protection, Exchange Online Protection or EOP for short. EOP provides a good level of protection against known malware threats but is far less effective at identifying and blocking new malware variants. The reason is EOP is heavily reliant on signature-based malware detection. These static lists are updated regularly – every 15 minutes – but without predictive-based techniques, it will always fall short when it comes to detecting brand new threats and many will slip through the net. Around 350,000 new malware threats are now being detected each day, so the standard Office 365 email security offering from Microsoft simply isn’t good enough.

It is not only zero-day malware that is delivered to inboxes. New types of phishing attacks are often not detected, in fact one study revealed that 25% of phishing emails bypass EOP defenses.

Microsoft does offer a second level of protection through a paid service named Advanced Threat Protection (APT), which is a marked improvement on EOP, but even with this option organizations will only be getting a low-to middle market level of protection, according to independent cybersecurity testing firm, SE Labs.

When it comes to cybersecurity, putting all of your eggs in one basket is never a good idea. For on-prem email you will no doubt have had multiple layers of security in place from more than one security vendor. If your email is in the cloud, you should similarly opt for layered defenses, which means Office 365 email security should also be provided by more than one vendor. Organizations that have heterogenous email security solutions are much harder to attack.

Enhance Office 365 Email Security with SpamTitan

For 20 years, TitanHQ has been protecting SMBs and MSPs from email-based threats through on-premises gateway and cloud-based email security, both of which can be seamlessly integrated with Office 365 to enhance security and block the threats that EOP fails to identify.

In contrast to EOP, SpamTitan is not reliant on signature-based detection methods and static lists. In addition to dual anti-virus engines, SpamTitan uses heuristics, Bayesian analysis, and machine learning for predictive threat detection to identify and block new malware threats. In addition, SpamTitan features sandboxing. The sandbox is a powerful feature than allows suspicious files and programs to be studied in depth for potential threats. These features provide enhanced protection against malware, spear-phishing, and advanced persistent threats (APTs), and provide insights into new threats to help IT teams mitigate risks.

Office 365 email security is further enhanced with SpamTitan through SPF and DMARC, which provide protection against email impersonation and BEC attacks. SpamTitan also includes data loss prevention features, anti-typosquatting protection, malicious link protection, and email encryption.

Secure Office 365 Email Archiving with ArcTitan

Microsoft does offer email archiving for Office 365, but keeping all your data within the same infrastructure and platform is a risk. IIt is far better to opt for secure Office 365 email archiving with a third-party solution. Here TitanHQ can help. TitanHQ has developed ArcTitan to make email archiving quick, painless, and 100% secure for Office 365. Office 365 will be your real-time data environment, but ArcTitan will ensure your emails are archived in a different cloud for maximum security.

Speak to TitanHQ Today to Secure Office 365 Email

Call TitanHQ today to find out more about SpamTitan Email Security and ArcTitan Email Archiving. You will be able to have all your questions answered and can schedule a personalized product demonstration of both solutions.