Upgrading Your Inbox: Should You Switch to Google's New Gmail? 📧
Brace yourself, the 2025 threat landscape is primed for an AI revolution, and your current email defenses might not cut it, especially when it comes to workplace email platforms. A recent cyber insurance report underscores this, stating that email is the most common cyberattack vector for businesses, serving as the entry point for financial fraud, ransomware, and data breaches.
But there's some promising news from At-Bay, a cybersecurity firm, which has praised the benefits of email that's more secure by default. This could potentially provide some hope in an otherwise daunting threat landscape.
At home, you can take steps to review your email settings and make recommendations, such as using Google's account security check-up. However, at work things are a bit more complex, as many of these settings are controlled by your IT department. At-Bay strongly suggests transitioning to a cloud-based email solution to mitigate security risks and ensure proactive vulnerability management.
The shift to cloud-based email solutions could pave the way for more robust defenses and a reevaluation of how these platforms operate. Currently, Gmail is leading the way, with its recent security upgrades paying off in real-world data. For instance, Gmail users reported a 54% lower frequency of incidents compared to the overall average, according to At-Bay. Features included by default in Gmail such as real-time phishing email detection, automatic security updates, and integrated threat intelligence are contributing to this improved security.
Although Gmail has a significant user base, cloud-based email solutions are not limited to Gmail. Workspace, for instance, has a comprehensive and robust security framework out of the box, making it a strong contender. However, the challenge lies in evolving email to cope with new AI threats that are quickly approaching.
AI is making threats more dangerous by making them more realistic, and email, as a second-rate technology that hasn't kept pace with others, is still vulnerable. The future of email security involves a hybrid mix of on-device and cloud screening for threats, as well as new safe browsing innovations that don't rely on centrally collated lists.
In the meantime, a fully managed, cloud-based email solution like Gmail or an alternative could be a wise choice, especially for businesses. The data supports this, with businesses experiencing lower incident frequencies with cloud-based email solutions like Gmail.
Despite the steps taken so far, email security requires a holistic approach. Implementing multi-factor authentication, enforcing strong password policies, limiting access with the principle of least privilege, conducting regular security audits, providing employee education, using email encryption, attachment and link scanning, advanced threat detection, integrating with a broader security stack, utilizing threat intelligence, tracking user behavior, and implementing reporting and compliance tools are all crucial measures to ensure a robust email security posture.
- To strengthen workplace email security, At-Bay suggests transitioning to a cloud-based email solution, such as Gmail or Microsoft 365, to ensure proactive vulnerability management and mitigate risks associated with phishing attacks.
- Gmail users have reported a 54% lower frequency of incidents compared to the overall average, thanks to features like real-time phishing email detection, automatic security updates, and integrated threat intelligence, which are included by default.
- Microsoft 365, which includes Outlook, also offers robust email security features, as a recent Microsoft warning highlighted potential vulnerabilities in its email system that could be exploited by phishing attacks.
- Workspace, another cloud-based email solution, also provides a comprehensive and robust security framework out of the box, making it a strong contender in the realm of email security, but it too faces the challenge of evolving to cope with new AI threats that are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
