A relic of the internet’s less secure past, many small firms struggle to secure their email systems…

An article review.

With a great deal of cybersecurity related news focused on new threats and similarly new techniques aimed at combating them, it can be easy to forget some of the older threats that have never gone away.  Consider email, which due to its age and complexity leaves tens of millions of small businesses relying on third parties to manage and secure it.

Adding security directly to email systems is difficult, and companies such as Microsoft can be slow to implement changes to default configuration settings due to the issues such changes may have on existing installations.  This can leave organizations reliant on third party solutions to layer security on top of their email systems, creating potential blind spots and adding complexity.

As painful as it may be in the short term, experts say making changes to default security settings such as enabling reputation checks for incoming email messages can make a big difference when it comes to avoiding attacks.  Additionally, utilizing multi-factor authentication across your organization can provide an additional layer of security should an email based attack succeed.

Original article by Elizabeth MacBride writing for CNBC.