GEC NEWS WIREMimecast Limited announced the results of its third quarterly Email Security Risk Assessment (ESRA), a report of the results of tests which measure the effectiveness of incumbent email security systems. This quarter’s assessment noted a continued challenge of securing organizations from malicious attachments, dangerous files types, impersonation attacks, as well as spam – with nearly a quarter of “unsafe” email being delivered to users’ inboxes. Among the email security services assessed, the tests found that using Mimecast in conjunction with prominent cloud-based email service providers, including Google G Suite and Microsoft Office 365, would substantially improve results by blocking thousands more email-borne attacks. The report indicates the need for organizations to enhance their cyber resilience strategies for email with a multi-layered approach that includes a third-party security service provider.
“These quarterly Mimecast ESRA reports highlight the need for the entire industry to work toward a higher standard of email security” said Ed Jennings, COO at Mimecast.
To date, Mimecast’s ESRA reports have inspected the inbound email received for 62,323 email users over a cumulative 428 days. More than 45 million emails were inspected, all of which had passed through the incumbent email security system in use by each organization – of this, 31 percent were deemed “unsafe” by Mimecast. These assessments have uncovered more than 10.8 million pieces of spam, 8,682 dangerous file types, 1,778 known and 503 unknown malware attachments and 9,677 impersonation emails to date. This quarterly ESRA report strongly indicates the need for organizations to consider third party email security services to more effectively secure their email and increase their overall cyber resilience.
