An Abuse Mailbox is the destination of user-reported suspicious emails sent to IT and security teams for further evaluation. It's a crucial part of tracking and stopping potential email threats.

Account takeovers happen when cybercriminals steal login credentials to access an email account. If a malicious actor successfully compromises an account, they can use it to commit fraud, send phishing emails, steal data, and beyond.

A brute force attack refers to a trial-and-error attempt to steal passwords, login credentials, and encryption keys. Brute force attacks are conducted manually or, more often, with the help of a computer. There are several effective defenses against these attacks–increasing password length, requiring CAPTCHA answers, or limited password attempts.

BEC is currently the most expensive type of cybercrime. These socially engineered attacks evade traditional email security systems. Learn how and why BEC works, and how to stop it.

CEO fraud is a type of BEC where criminals impersonate a CEO in an attempt to trick employees into paying invoices, sharing sensitive information, or otherwise compromising a company’s cybersecurity infrastructure. CEO fraud is also known as executive impersonation.

A cloud access security broker (CASB) is a security policy that sits between cloud service providers and users. A wide ranging CASB can authenticate users, help monitor and stop suspicious activity, prevent malware, and more.

Cloud-based email is an email delivery and storage method hosted and maintained by an outside provider. It allows organizations and users to securely send, receive, and store emails. This is unlike on-premise email hosting which is physically housed and maintained internally within an organization's servers and IT environment.

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) is a set of tools and processes designed to keep cloud-based environments secure by identifying misconfigurations and enforcing security policies.

Credential stuffing uses stolen login credentials and across multiple websites, using bots for mass log-in attempts.

A data archive is the removal and safe storage of data that remains important or sensitive but is no longer regularly used. It’s an important practice for organizations with data compliance or forensics requirements.

A data breach occurs when confidential and sensitive information is stolen by an unauthorized group or individual. Data breaches are one of the end goals of many cyberattacks.

A data leak is the unintentional exposure of sensitive data. Data leaks, unlike data breaches, are not the result of malicious activity–rather, data leaks typically stem from bad or outdated data security policies.

Data loss prevention refers to a set of software and processes that work to prevent breaches and unauthorized access of sensitive data. DLP is a critical component in protecting and securing data.

DKIM is a standard email authentication protocol that helps ensure sender addresses aren’t forged and emails aren’t altered in transit. DKIM affixes a digital signature linked to a domain name, so recipients can verify that the sender address is authorized by said domain.

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) is a standard email authentication protocol. It helps mail administrators and domain owners prevent email spoofing from cyberattackers. Servers can look up the DMARC policy of an incoming email to validate that its DKIM signature is valid, the headers align with the proper domain, and the address matches the domain.

A DNS spoof, also called DNS cache poisoning, is a cyberattack where criminals redirect traffic from a legit site to a malicious copycat. They alter DNS records by hijacking a DNS server, or intercepting communications between a server and user, and eventually returning an incorrect IP address. The malicious site may install viruses or prompt users to enter login credentials.

Email archiving is the process of securely storing emails, making it easy to search for and retrieve them. It helps store old emails that you don’t need immediate access to, but don’t want to delete. Beyond the convenience of quickly finding emails and preserving server speeds, email archiving is vital for security and compliance purposes.

Email filtering is the act of processing emails—incoming and sometimes outgoing—to classify and categorize them. This is usually done by an SMTP server. Email filtering is often used to detect spam, viruses, and malware before it reaches a user.

Email protection is a combination of software and processes designed to defend an organization’s inboxes from email-based cyberattacks. This ranges from email security software that scans and detects malicious content and intent in messages to security awareness training for end users.

Email scams are cyberattacks sent over email that use social engineering tactics to trick people into sharing private data or installing malicious software.

Email security is a set of processes and technologies to protect email accounts, users, and organizations from unauthorized and malicious messages.

Email spoofing is a method to send emails with a forged sender address, often used to deliver spam and phishing attacks. A strong email security framework can detect and prevent it.

Graymail is a promotional email from a legitimate sender that varies in value to different users. Different from spam, the variance in content and in relevance to users makes it more challenging to filter with rules or policies. It may be a bulk email that a recipient has subscribed to in the past, like a newsletter, or a cold call from a vendor.

An impersonation attack is a type of cybercrime where a criminal poses as a known person or organization to steal confidential data or money. Attackers use social engineering tactics to assume an identity–either by compromising an account or creating a lookalike–and ask unsuspecting victims to complete routine tasks like paying an invoice, sharing a file, or clicking a link.

Indicators of Compromise (IOC) are forensic clues and evidence of a potential breach within an organization's network or system. IOCs give security teams essential context in discovering and remediating a cyberattack.

An insider threat is a person within an organization who poses a cyber security risk. This person uses their credentials and trusted status to compromise a network or leak data to unauthorized people outside the organization, intentionally or accidentally.

Integrated cloud email security (ICES) is a cloud-based email security solution that supplements the native security capabilities of a cloud email provider like Microsoft or Google. ICES is a relatively new term coined by Gartner to describe the evolving offerings in the email security market.

IP reputation measures the behavioral quality of an IP address and how many unwanted requests it sends. If an IP address sends authentic, spam-free emails, it gets a positive IP reputation score. On the other hand, if associated with bulk spam, malware, dangerous domains, or suspicious locations, an IP address will have a poor IP reputation.

A man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack happens when a cybercriminal positions themselves between two parties to intercept and eavesdrop on private communications. They can then trick users into revealing sensitive data like passwords or banking credentials.

A multi-factor authentication (MFA) bypass is a broad term referring to an attack method where a cybercriminal navigates around MFA requirements to gain unauthorized access to an account.

An MX record, or mail exchange record, is a DNS record that routes emails to specified mail servers. MX records essentially point to the IP addresses of a mail server’s domain. MX records can specify and prioritize multiple email servers, which is necessary for load balancing and avoiding outages. And they're an important part of troubleshooting mail delivery problems for any organization.

Pharming refers to a cyberattack where a user is redirected to a fake version of a legitimate website. This is usually done by infecting a user’s computer with malware or corrupting a website’s DNS server.

Phishing is a social engineering attack where criminals send fraudulent messages—usually by email—purporting to be a legitimate business, organization, or person. The goal: trick a user into sharing sensitive data like login credentials or deploying malware.

Ransomware is a type of malware that can lock computers, networks, and systems until a ransom is paid. It's a growing problem for businesses and individuals alike.

A Secure Email Gateway (SEG) is a hardware appliance or piece of software that monitors emails sent and received. SEGs are designed to keep threats like spam, malware, phishing attacks, and unwanted messages out of user inboxes.

Security awareness training minimizes security risks by empowering employees with tools and knowledge against cyber threats. It's a necessary part of cybersecurity–organizations are only as safe as their users.

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an email authentication protocol that helps verify an email’s true sender. Receiving servers use SPF to check that an email comes from a server approved by the purported sending domain.

Smishing is a type of phishing attack conducted over text messages. It's increasingly common due to the ease of setting up spoofed numbers and the lack of spam filters for SMS messaging.

SMTP is a common language used to send email. It’s a universal set of rules that allow servers and email clients to communicate via the internet. It helps increase email deliverability and reduce spam by verifying email senders. Think of SMTP as the language your computer uses to tell a server where an email goes, what’s in the email, what’s attached, and more.

In information security, social engineering refers to deceptive and manipulative practices used by bad actors to trick people into sharing sensitive data or sending money to a threat actor. Social engineering is a cornerstone of many successful cyberattacks, and it's unique from other attacks in that it doesn't require technical skills.

Spear Phishing is a highly targeted cyberattack where criminals research a victim to send convincing phishing emails. It's effective and potentially devastating.

Supply chain attacks are sophisticated cyberattacks that bypass traditional security measures. A criminal compromises a trusted vendor, opening the door for attacks across a supply chain. They can infect shared infrastructure with malware, or send convincing phishing attacks from the trusted vendor.

Vishing is a phishing attack conducted entirely over the phone. Americans face a whopping 4 million scam calls a month thanks in part to new technologies that make vishing easy and effective.

Whaling is a type of spear phishing attack that specifically targets or impersonates high-value targets—like C-suite executives–to steal sensitive data and, ultimately, money. Whaling attacks are a form of social engineering that utilize false urgency and deep research to trick victims.

Zero trust is a cybersecurity framework based on the principle that nothing is automatically trusted. Every person, device, or digital interaction is immediately regarded as a potential threat by the framework until they're properly authenticated. The zero trust strategy is a collection of procedures designed to protect a network from internal threats.