Your email is the door to everything.
Through email someone can reset passwords. Request wire transfers. Impersonate vendors. Send invoices from supplier addresses. Trigger ransomware.
Most businesses have antivirus and spam filter. But sophisticated attacks slip past both.
And they cost you money every week.
What’s Getting Through
Phishing emails that work aren’t obviously malicious. They come from addresses that look real. A vendor you recognize. A client you work with. An internal email.
The message is simple: click here, verify password, approve transaction, open attachment.
In firm of 20 people, send same email to 500 businesses, maybe 5 click. If one works at company where it matters, attacker got password, account access, network foothold.
The Problem With Standard Filtering
Antispam filters check if email from known malicious address or matches spam pattern.
But wire fraud email looks like business.
Spoofed vendor address passes because not from known malicious source.
New malware passes because filter hasn’t learned to recognize it.
Password request looks legitimate.
Standard filtering stops obvious threats. Not threats designed to look obvious.
What Actually Works
Email authentication – verify email actually from sender claimed.
Content scanning – look for phishing patterns.
URL analysis – check where links actually go.
Attachment analysis – check files for malware behavior.
Together catch 99% of phishing.
Why Your Insurance Asks
Email is how most breaches start. Fix email layer and you reduce breach odds dramatically.
The Cost Calculation
Email filtering a few dollars per user per month.
Phishing that gets through costs thousands – fraudulent wire, recovery, cleanup, deductible.
Filtering pays for itself with one prevented incident.
What to Do
1. Ask provider about layered filtering
2. Ask about authentication – DMARC and SPF
3. Ask about MFA on email
4. Ask about reporting – see what’s blocked
5. Train someone on reporting phishing
SPF, DMARC, MFA take five minutes to implement. Make door harder to pick, everything else gets harder too.