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What is a Secure Email Gateway?

Tuesday, October 24th, 2023

As threats to email security are increasing, organizations are looking for ways to enhance their security and reduce risk. One option is a secure email gateway. In this article, we review what secure email gateways are and how they can be used to secure sensitive data as it flows into and out of your accounts.

secure email sending button on keyboard

Protect Your Accounts With A Secure Email Gateway

Secure email gateways are an excellent way to strengthen the security of your email accounts without a costly switch to a new email provider. They layer on top of your existing email accounts to encrypt messages, scan for threats, and even capture messages for archival or backup purposes. They can also hide the sender’s IP address because messages are routed through another email infrastructure before delivery to the recipient. If you are concerned about increasing risks to sensitive data, secure email gateways offer a simple and effective way to enhance your email security.

How Do Secure Email Gateways Work?

When using a secure email gateway, your messages are routed to a separate server before being sent or received. When sending an outbound message with LuxSci’s Secure Connector, it is routed through our SecureLine encryption before being securely delivered to the recipient. A copy of the message may also be sent to an independent email archive to help meet compliance requirements for message retention.

 

LuxSci Secure Connector

 

For incoming messages, the gateway can employ email filtering technology to quarantine suspicious messages. These technologies can scan incoming messages and prevent spammers and scammers from reaching employee inboxes and wreaking havoc. Just like with outbound email sending, the gateway can also capture a copy of inbound messages and retain them in an independent message archive.

The exact features of a secure email gateway will vary from vendor to vendor, but these represent some of the core functions that these tools provide. Simply put, a secure email gateway protects both incoming and outgoing messages to ensure that sensitive data is guarded from threats.

Why Choose a Secure Gateway?

There are two main reasons to implement a secure email gateway: the security and compliance benefits and their ease of use. Let’s look at each.

Compliance and Security Benefits

Many companies, like healthcare organizations, must comply with regulations for protecting patient or customer data. Many organizations grapple with the best way to secure potentially sensitive communications without interfering with or slowing down critical business workflows. Because secure email gateways layer on top of existing email accounts, they offer a speedy way to bring your organization into compliance with data security and retention guidelines.

As email continues to be an important channel for essential business communications, all organizations can benefit from protecting their employee accounts and reducing their risk and liability.

Easy to Administer and Use

Another benefit of using a secure email gateway is that your organization does not need to switch your primary email provider to enhance its security. Changing to a more secure email provider can be extremely challenging, especially if you have a lot of users with a lot of data that needs to be migrated to a new system. Add on the training time, and some organizations will find that switching email providers is a significant burden on the organization.

Installing a secure email gateway is very easy for account administrators and often does not require additional training or implementation for email users. Employees can continue to use their regular Microsoft or Google email accounts and do not need to take additional steps to learn an entirely new email program. With 73% of breaches in the healthcare industry caused by human factors, implementing tools that don’t rely on employee decision-making is essential.

Learn More About LuxSci’s Secure Connector

LuxSci’s Secure Connector is unlike other secure email gateways in that it encrypts every email automatically to reduce the risk of breaches caused by human errors. LuxSci provides the flexibility to opt-in to more secure methods of encryption for highly sensitive messages. Email filtering and archival tools are also available to reduce risk and improve resilience in the case of a cyber incident. Contact our sales team to learn more about our email security tools.

Tags: email archival, email encryption, email filtering, email security, hipaa compliance, secure connector, secure email gateway
Posted in Email, LuxSci Library: Email Programs and Devices
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Is Your Organization Prepared for On-Premises Exchange 2007, 2010, and 2013 Updates?

Tuesday, April 11th, 2023

Microsoft recently announced they would begin blocking emails sent from vulnerable on-premises Exchange Servers to Exchange Online. Microsoft no longer supports these servers, so they no longer receive security updates and risk being hacked or breached. In 2022, cybercriminals targeted on-premises Exchange Servers with new zero-day attacks.

To reduce risk and encourage customers to upgrade to Exchange Online, Microsoft will begin throttling messages sent from older on-premises Exchange Servers starting with Exchange 2007 servers in June. Emails will arrive slower, causing a painful disruption to business processes.

on-premises exchange upgrades

What Will Happen to On-Premises Exchange Servers?

First, Microsoft has added a new report to the Exchange admin center in Exchange Online. It informs tenant administrators of any unsupported or out-of-date Exchange Servers operating in their environment that connect to Exchange Online to send emails. If your servers are listed, they will be throttled and blocked from future sending to Exchange Online customers.

If administrators do not take any action to upgrade their servers, Exchange Online will begin to throttle emails sent from on-premises Exchange Servers. The throttling will be progressive, starting with five minutes of throttling per hour and escalating gradually over 30 days to 20 minutes of throttling. This slowdown will prevent emails from being delivered promptly.

If its owner does nothing to upgrade the server during the 30-day throttling period, Exchange Online will block messages sent from vulnerable Exchange 2007 servers. Starting July 26, 2023, Exchange Online will block inbound traffic from obsolete Exchange 2007 servers. Customers using old on-premises Exchange Servers will no longer be able to send mail to Exchange Online customers.

This reporting, throttling, and blocking plan will eventually be rolled out to other legacy on-premises servers running older versions of Exchange, including Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2013.  

What Do I Do to Protect My On-Premises Exchange Servers?

Microsoft recommends upgrading your server to Exchange Online to continue sending and receiving mail as usual. However, this process is complicated for certain businesses with complex deployments of exchange. Upgrades can be very time consuming and disruptive if not done very carefully. You may need more than ninety days’ notice to prepare for upgrades and/or migration. You can request a temporary pause from Microsoft, but it’s limited to an additional 90 days.

LuxSci offers another way to protect on-premises Exchange Servers. Using Secure Connector, you can route outgoing email through LuxSci’s SMTP mail servers, effectively anonymizing the sending source and allowing mail to be delivered as expected to Exchange Online customers. Secure Connector is easy to set up and will help hide what version of Exchange you are using from attackers to reduce the risk of a breach.

How Anonymous SMTP Works to Disguise the Sender’s Mail Programs

Microsoft can block mail from vulnerable on-premises Exchange servers because the mail headers reveal the sender’s email program, servers, and IP address. It can use the information in the headers to throttle and block messages. Routing your mail through LuxSci’s Authenticated SMTP (or Authenticated Secure SMTP) scrubs the message headers, removing all information about the sender’s IP address and email program. The message is then re-emailed to the intended recipients.

The recipients receive messages that appear the same, but now they can only track them back to LuxSci’s SMTP servers. They know who you are based on your email address and message content, but the recipient cannot review the headers to identify your IP address or email program.

Using Secure Connector’s SMTP anonymization features may be a good measure for organizations as they determine their next steps for upgrading vulnerable on-premises Exchange Servers. Secure Connector can also be used to futureproof your communications as cyber threats continue to rise. Contact LuxSci today to learn how we can help you secure your identity and maintain business operations.

Tags: anonymous smtp, exchange server, microsoft exchange, secure connector, smtp
Posted in Business Solutions, Email
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The Security Risks of Staffing Challenges

Wednesday, March 29th, 2023

The cybersecurity talent shortage is a known issue that the government, industry groups, and educators are working to address. But as CISOs are asked to do more with fewer resources and support, it can risk healthcare organizations’ cybersecurity. The “Implications of Stress on CISOs 2023 Report” by Cynet found that many security teams faced retention challenges due to work-related stress that could put their data at risk.

The Security Risks of Staffing Challenges

When security teams are understaffed, they can become overworked and burnt out. As a result, they have less time to focus on updating security policies, training staff, and monitoring the attack surface. The impacts of staffing challenges can significantly affect the ability of security teams to detect and respond to threats. The survey found that 65 percent of CISOs stated that work-related stress affected their capacity to safeguard their organization. In addition, 77 percent of CISOs believed their insufficient bandwidth and inadequate resources caused critical security initiatives to be neglected. These lapses are not going unnoticed. Seventy-nine percent of CISOs have received complaints from colleagues claiming security tasks are not being adequately handled.

the security risks of staffing challengesWith limited choices, organizations must be wise and strategic in the technology they employ. When asked about the technology initiatives that could positively impact their work-related stress levels, 57 percent of the respondents cited consolidating multiple security technologies on a single platform or interface as a possible solution. Additionally, 51 percent of the respondents believed automating time-consuming and repetitive manual tasks would help reduce their workloads.

Candidate Quality Staffing Challenges

When security teams cannot find qualified candidates to fill open positions, crucial tasks are left incomplete, and other team members must pick up the slack. In turn, this can lead to compounding issues with employee satisfaction and retention. Of the surveyed CISO teams, 74 percent reported losing team members due to work-related stress issues.

According to the report, nearly half of the teams had more than one CISO resign over the last 12 months. The impact of stress levels is seen in retention rates and recruitment efforts, with 83 percent of CISOs admitting they have had to compromise on the quality of new hires to fill vacancies left by departing employees.

Solving retention and recruitment issues is essential to improve your organization’s security posture. Rethinking the hiring process and investing in entry-level talent is just one approach to filling the cybersecurity talent pipeline.

Ways to Alleviate the Security Risks of Staffing Challenges

While solving staffing challenges will take time and investment from the public and private sectors, there are ways to streamline and automate tasks to reduce the burden on security teams.

According to Deloitte, email is a significant vector of security risk for many healthcare organizations. 91% of all cyber attacks begin with a phishing email. Healthcare organizations have more to worry about than cyberattacks. They are also vulnerable to insider threats and have serious data compliance obligations. Employees must understand data loss prevention and how to protect sensitive information that is shared externally.

By using LuxSci’s best-in-class secure email technology, it can drastically reduce the burden on security teams. Protect from external threats by employing advanced email filtering to stop cybercriminals from even reaching inboxes. In addition, LuxSci’s email encryption is enabled automatically to protect sensitive data in transit. It’s easy to administer and doesn’t require security and IT teams to spend hours developing keyword lists, analyzing gaps, and training employees. By reducing the risk of your email communications, security teams can focus their limited resources on critical security initiatives.

Contact LuxSci today to learn how our experienced team can help alleviate the burden on your security and IT teams.

Tags: ciso, cybersecurity, cybersecurity risk, email encryption, email filtering, email security, operational efficiency, phishing, risk assessment, secure connector, secure email, security risk, staffing
Posted in LuxSci Library: Security and Privacy
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Reduce Risk with Set It and Forget It Email Encryption

Tuesday, February 7th, 2023

Leveraging PHI in your communications provides relevant, meaningful information to patients while significantly increasing positive health outcomes. LuxSci’s secure and HIPAA-compliant always-on email encryption streamlines the communications process and reduces risk. Use PHI safely and securely with set it and forget it email encryption technology.

doctor sending email

The Email Encryption Landscape

There are many ways to enable encryption for messages that contain protected health information. The most common include data loss prevention technology and manual opt-in encryption.

First, data loss prevention uses software to scan message contents to look for keywords, phrases, or patterns that indicate the presence of sensitive or confidential information. Administrators must create detailed rules that instruct the DLP technology on what information is privileged and should be encrypted. While this is effective for some common keywords and patterns like social security numbers, a lot of health data does not fall neatly into pre-defined rules. DLP can quickly be rendered inadequate by misspellings, typos, or other human errors that fail to trigger the technology.

PHI data risk

The next way that email messages are commonly encrypted is through human decision-making. The user switches a toggle or types a word like “encrypt” into the subject line or message to notify the system that the message should be secured. This form of opt-in encryption is hazardous because it relies on staff members making the right decisions around confidentiality and security. Even the best employees will make mistakes. How many times have you forgotten to include an attachment with an email message?

A Better Way: Set It and Forget It Email Encryption

set it and forget it email encryption At LuxSci, we recommend a different approach. Encrypting every email message automatically drastically reduces the risk of user error and ensures 100% message encryption. In industries like healthcare and finance, even one mistake could lead to a breach with severe financial penalties.

By encrypting all messages with a baseline of TLS encryption, organizations can meet their compliance requirements and provide a better user experience for recipients because portal logins are not required.

Set It

Setting up LuxSci’s Secure Connector takes less than one hour. Administrators can set it up globally, with no local installation or download required by staff members to connect. Once DNS and encryption settings are configured, employees can send secure emails immediately.

Administrators can choose the encryption configuration option that best fits their business processes. TLS is suitable for most communications, but sensitive data like health records, financial reports, or other confidential information can be sent to a secure portal for increased security. Administrators can create and manage encryption settings on an individual or group level to provide maximum flexibility. LuxSci’s encryption technology is highly configurable to meet any business need.

Forget It

Administrators don’t have to rely on employee decision-making when all messages are automatically encrypted. Employees do not need to be trained on when to enable encryption. It just happens automatically in the background, which increases security and gives you peace of mind.

It’s also easier for administrators to manage. There is no need to create detailed lists of rules to trigger encryption technology. Once you’ve selected your encryption preferences, all emails are sent that way. Minimal ongoing training or support is needed, and administrators can be confident that their messages are protected. In addition, users can verify that secure message delivery occurred with comprehensive analytics reports.

The Results: Improved Patient Engagement

TLS encryption is a game-changer because it is secure enough to meet compliance requirements and is user-friendly. TLS-encrypted messages appear just like regular, unencrypted emails in the recipient’s inbox, making them easy to read and respond to but without the risk of interception or eavesdropping. This is crucial for users who are not tech-savvy and helps to increase engagement with the message contents. If a user needs to take an extra step to log into a portal or create an account, they are more likely to drop off and not read the message.

Reducing friction in patient communications helps improve conversions and nudges patients into taking actions that will improve their health outcomes. Access to health care needs to be equitable, and that means making clinical communications seamless for users of all technical abilities.

Tags: always on encryption, automatic encrypion, dlp, email encryption, human error, patient engagement, phi, risk analysis, secure connector, set it and forget it
Posted in Email, LuxSci Library: HIPAA
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HIPAA-Compliant Email Hosting or Outbound Email Encryption?

Tuesday, January 25th, 2022

There are many ways to protect ePHI in email. HIPAA is technology-neutral and doesn’t make specific recommendations for how to protect email communications. This article explains the difference between a HIPAA-compliant email host and an email encryption gateway. These are just two of the options for securing email accounts.

email encryption

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Tags: email, email encryption, email security, encryption, hipaa, hipaa compliance, outbound email encryption, outlook, secure connector, secure email, secureline, smtp
Posted in Email, SMTP Connector
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