Emails are essential business communications and collaboration tools and the vast majority of business information is, at some point of its lifecycle, communicated via emails and their attachments. Even though the use of other forms of communications is increasing, email usage continues to outpace them all.

The fact that hackers target emails is not news, but their motivations have changed. They are no longer content with just causing disruption through the damage caused by malware-riddled messages, but now look to steal the sensitive information that many emails contain.

It is therefore essential that email systems are adequately secured. But it is not sufficient to think of email security merely in terms of protection against malware threats. Rather, email security needs to be considered in a wider context that includes protection against outbound threats to prevent data leaking out of an organisation.

Other considerations for email security include mailbox management, continuity, archiving and discovery, and compliance reporting. Continuity is extremely important so that productivity is not impacted by, and no records are lost owing to, downtime. Archiving and discovery are increasing in importance and are ideal candidates for a cloud-delivery model, allowing organisations to securely store and quickly find email records when they are needed. A compliance capability, including blueprints for the main industry standards and government regulations, is also of vital importance for complying with the demands of such mandates that all business records, including those produced electronically, are processed, transmitted and stored in a highly secure manner.

A new report discussing what is required of a holistic email security system and comparing the capabilities of some of the major players in the market is available for download via the following link: http://www.mimecast.com/bloorsecurity.