Is it Time to Reconsider your Policy on Webmail?

We all know email is the top attack vector for cybercriminals. But when you look at some of the statistics recently released by Palo Alto Networks, the threat may be more ominous than we want to believe; especially when you do the math.

In a webinar delivered by Scott Simkin, of the Cybersecurity Team at Palo Alto, malware trends were shared that he could only describe as “staggering”. 

Research at Palo Alto, as presented by Simkin found that 40% of email attachments are malicious and that 41.1% of all malware is delivered via email. Both scary numbers by themselves.

Worse yet, Simkin pointed out a scenario that many organizations allow, but may need to reconsider: SSL encrypted webmail.   If your policies allow users to access personal webmail (like Gmail) from the network, you need to understand that the SSL encryption that many webmail applications employ may prevent your security monitoring from being able to see or act upon that traffic. Combine that with all the junk that comes into personal email accounts, along with the fact that 40% of attachments are malicious, and you have what Simkin describes as “a recipe for disaster”.

What are some basic steps that can be taken to reduce this risk?

1. Don’t allow personal webmail on your network. With everyone having a smartphone these days, it may be easier to just tell employees to keep personal email off the network.
2. Determine if SSL inspection is available on your network, or see what it would take to implement that feature.
3. Educate your staff. Regardless of whether you do both or neither of the previous two suggestions, this is a must. User awareness of the risks of email is so important to combating this threat that it should be a part of every information security training program.

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