Is Your Email Security Putting Your Business at Risk?
Despite the growth of messaging platforms and collaboration tools, email remains the backbone of business communication — and the favourite entry point for attackers. More than 90% of successful cyberattacks begin with an email. Yet many businesses still rely on basic spam filters and hope for the best.
The Modern Email Threat Landscape
The threats arriving in your inbox today are far more sophisticated than the obvious scams of a decade ago. Modern attacks include:
- Spear phishing — highly targeted emails impersonating colleagues, executives, or trusted suppliers
- Business Email Compromise (BEC) — attackers who gain access to a legitimate email account and use it to redirect payments or steal data
- Malicious attachments and links — delivering ransomware, spyware, or remote access tools
- Domain spoofing — emails that appear to come from your own domain or a trusted partner's domain
DMARC: The Protocol Most Businesses Haven't Deployed
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) is a free, open email authentication protocol that tells receiving mail servers what to do when they receive an email claiming to be from your domain but failing authentication checks. Without DMARC, anyone can send an email that looks like it came from your organisation.
Despite being available for over a decade, fewer than 30% of South African businesses have DMARC properly configured. Deploying DMARC in enforcement mode (policy: reject) stops domain spoofing outright and protects both your clients and your reputation.
Layered Email Security
Effective email security combines DMARC with advanced threat protection — sandboxing attachments, scanning links in real time, and using AI-driven analysis to identify patterns that signature-based filters miss. At ITEX, our email security stack addresses the full threat surface, not just the obvious threats.