Email Security
Security Ratings
BEC and Phishing Susceptibility Score
Dark Web Presence Investigation Module
Domain Intelligence Investigation Module
Sentiment and Financials Investigation Module
Across Security Ratings Providers, Cyber Risk Management, Third Party Risk Management, Vendor Risk Management, Cybersecurity Risk Assessment, and Cyber Risk Quantification, Email Security as a scoring category generally reflects an organization's posture and susceptibility related to email-borne threats. This encompasses various technical and organizational controls to prevent attacks like phishing, Business Email Compromise (BEC), malware distribution, and data leaks from or facilitated by email.
Here's a more granular look at what this category often implies:
Security Ratings Providers: These platforms assess an organization's external security posture. Their Email Security score likely considers publicly observable indicators related to email infrastructure, such as the proper implementation and configuration of email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), known vulnerabilities in email servers, and potentially, the organization's history of email-related incidents.
Cyber Risk Management: Within a broader cyber risk management program, the Email Security score contributes to the overall assessment of an organization's threat landscape. It highlights a significant attack vector and helps prioritize mitigation efforts to reduce the likelihood and impact of email-based attacks.
Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) and Vendor Risk Management (VRM): Their Email Security score is crucial when evaluating third parties or vendors. A weak email security posture in a vendor can expose the primary organization to risks like BEC through compromised vendor accounts or phishing attacks that leverage the vendor's domain. This score helps determine the level of risk associated with the vendor's communication channels.
Cybersecurity Risk Assessment: Email Security is a key domain in a risk assessment. The assessment would analyze the effectiveness of existing email security controls, identify vulnerabilities, and evaluate the potential business impact of successful email-based attacks. The scoring helps quantify the identified risks.
Cyber Risk Quantification: This discipline assigns financial values to cyber risks. The Email Security score, combined with data on the frequency and severity of email attacks, helps quantify the potential economic losses an organization might face due to inadequate email security.
The Email Security scoring category indicates how well an organization is protecting itself and its stakeholders from a wide range of email-related cyber threats. A higher score generally suggests a stronger security posture and a lower likelihood of successful attacks.
How ThreatNG Enhances Email Security Risk Management
ThreatNG's all-in-one platform, with its comprehensive external perspective, offers a powerful approach to managing findings associated with Email Security. Its BEC & Phishing Susceptibility Security Ratings Score, derived from a wealth of intelligence, provides a central metric for understanding an organization's risk in this critical area.
Furthermore, ThreatNG's various investigation modules provide the context and granular details needed to understand the why behind the score and to develop a more meaningful and comprehensive roadmap for risk management. Let's explore how specific modules and capabilities contribute:
1. BEC & Phishing Susceptibility Score:
This score isn't just a number; it's informed by Sentiment and Financials Findings (which can indicate if an organization is being discussed in contexts related to fraud or financial distress, potentially making them a more attractive target for BEC), Domain Intelligence (providing insights into email security presence and format prediction), and Dark Web Presence (identifying compromised credentials that could be used in phishing or BEC attacks).
Email Intelligence: This is a cornerstone for understanding email security posture. By analyzing Security Presence (DMARC, SPF, and DKIM records), ThreatNG can identify organizations that haven't implemented these crucial authentication protocols or have misconfigured them, making them more susceptible to domain spoofing and phishing. Format predictions can help anticipate the structure of legitimate emails and aid in detecting anomalies. Harvested Emails found publicly can also indicate potential targets for attackers.
Example: If ThreatNG's Email Intelligence reveals that an organization lacks a DMARC policy or has a permissive "p=none" setting, this significantly increases their BEC & Phishing Susceptibility score. The platform would highlight this specific finding, explain the risk of domain spoofing, and recommend implementing a stricter DMARC policy (e.g., "p=quarantine" or "p=reject").
DNS Intelligence: Analyzing Domain Record Analysis can uncover misconfigurations in MX records or the presence of suspicious or outdated entries that could be exploited. Domain Name Permutations (Taken and Available) highlights the risk of typosquatting, where attackers register slightly altered domain names to impersonate the organization.
Example: If ThreatNG identifies numerous available domain name permutations closely resembling the target organization's domain, it would flag this as a brand impersonation risk that could be leveraged in phishing campaigns. The platform would advise the organization to consider registering these permutations defensively.
WHOIS Intelligence: Identifying Other Domains Owned by the organization can reveal inconsistencies in registration details or the presence of domains that are not actively monitored, potentially serving as launchpads for phishing attacks.
Example: If ThreatNG discovers a dormant but related domain with weak security settings, it would highlight the risk of this domain being compromised and used to send phishing emails targeting the primary organization's customers or partners.
The Compromised Credentials identified in ThreatNG's dark web monitoring directly contribute to the BEC & Phishing Susceptibility score. Stolen credentials can be used to gain unauthorized access to email accounts, enabling attackers to conduct BEC attacks or launch internal phishing campaigns.
Example: If ThreatNG detects compromised employee credentials associated with the target organization on the dark web, it would flag these specific accounts as high-risk. The platform would recommend immediate password resets and multi-factor authentication enforcement to mitigate the risk of account takeover.
Findings like Lawsuits, SEC Filings (especially Risk and Oversight Disclosures and SEC Form 8-Ks), and Negative News can provide context about an organization's vulnerabilities or times of crisis, which attackers might exploit through targeted phishing or BEC scams.
Example: If ThreatNG identifies a recent SEC filing indicating financial difficulties or a significant data breach, this information could elevate the BEC & Phishing Susceptibility score, as attackers often prey on organizations during vulnerable periods. The platform would provide context about this increased risk.
ThreatNG's Holistic Approach and Roadmap:
By integrating these diverse intelligence sources, ThreatNG provides a much more nuanced understanding of an organization's email security risks than a simple point-in-time assessment. The platform's capabilities enable a comprehensive roadmap for managing these risks:
Prioritization: The BEC & Phishing Susceptibility score, coupled with the risk levels associated with individual findings (e.g., a critical risk for a missing DMARC record), allows organizations to effectively prioritize remediation efforts.
Understanding (Reasoning): The Knowledgebase embedded within ThreatNG provides context and reasoning behind each finding. For example, it would explain why a missing DMARC record is a significant risk for BEC and phishing.
Actionable Recommendations: ThreatNG offers practical advice on how to mitigate identified risks. For a missing DMARC record, the recommendation would be to implement a DMARC policy with a "p=quarantine" or "p=reject" setting.
Continuous Monitoring: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring ensures that changes in an organization's external attack surface, dark web presence, or domain configurations are detected promptly, allowing for proactive risk management.
Collaboration and Management: Features like role-based access control and dynamically generated Correlation Evidence Questionnaires facilitate efficient cross-functional collaboration to address email security findings.
Policy Management: Customizable risk configuration and scoring allow organizations to align the Email Security scoring with their specific risk tolerance and policies.
ThreatNG's comprehensive external perspective, centered around the BEC & Phishing Susceptibility Security Ratings Score and enriched with insights from Domain Intelligence, Dark Web Presence, and Sentiment and Financials, empowers organizations to develop a more meaningful and practical roadmap for managing email security risks. It moves beyond a simple score to provide the context, reasoning, and actionable intelligence needed to defend against sophisticated email-borne threats proactively.