Organizations continue to experience email phishing attacks which are becoming more prevalent each day providing cyber attackers with an opportunity to gain access to an organization’s internal systems. Successful phishing attacks can result in ransomware, malware, supply chain attacks, and other fraud-related intrusions into the organization’s systems. User education, however, detailed and frequently conducted has been proven to provide limited success in stopping phishing attacks.
Digitally signed emails are touted as one method to ensure that the email can be trusted. However, digitally signed emails lack the assurance that the sender of the email message is really who they say they are. As a result, digitally signed email messages where the sender’s identity has not been validated have limited value.
To put this issue into perspective, recent statistics show :
- 91% of all cyber attacks begin with a phishing Email
- Human error is the highest cause of successful phishing as 97% of users fail to identify phishing emails
- Average ransom ware fees due to cyber-attacks have more than doubled since 2019
So it makes sense that stopping phishing attacks is a first step in reducing and protecting your organization from future cyber attacks
A new approach is needed to help organizations effectively counter phishing attacks and ensure received emails are from a trusted source. The MailSlotTM solution includes confirmation of an individual’s identity and the linking to an x.509 digital identity certificate issued by the Vital Records Department from the City of Osmio. The combination of identity verification and the x.509 digital identity certificate establishes a high level of trust that an email message sent by this individual is who they say they are.
Watch a 30-second video on how MailSlotTM works to digitally sign all outgoing messages.
Organizations that implement the MailSlotTM will be able to establish a high level of trust with their inbound and outbound communications with employees, vendors, and others who regularly communicate with the organization. MailSlotTM will help protect the organization from further successful phishing attacks.
Messages received through the organization’s mail system will be separated into trusted and untrusted folders. Messages which are digitally signed with an Osmio VRD x.509 certificates are placed in the trusted folder for review. Those messages which are not digitally signed are placed in an untrusted folder to be reviewed carefully by the recipient or members of the organization’s information security technology team.