You expect a message to reach the intended recipient without any errors when you send it via email. There is a small group of people who are within this group as cybercriminals. They are constantly trying to hijack emails. They also trick people into opening malicious attachments or clicking on links that will provide them with malware to install on their devices.  

Therefore, what are the best ways to protect yourself, your family, your friends, and your employees from these risks? By implementing a secure email gateway, you can prevent these threats from occurring. 

There are several types of secure email gateways (SEG), some of which are used by businesses, organizations, or governments to protect their internal email servers from cyberattacks that can infiltrate the email servers of those organizations. SEGs ensure that outgoing and inbound emails contain no malicious elements. Using this feature, users can keep track of emails they have sent and received and decide if they should be processed according to their previous instructions.  

To protect email communications, secure email gateways are placed to connect the organization's server to the public internet. As any message enters or leaves the server, it is scanned by the SEG. 

Essentially, SEGs are designed to prevent unwanted emails from being able to reach the servers of your email service provider to cause any damage. In this way, SEGs offer a level of protection for confidential information from cyber criminals, provide data privacy, and encrypt sensitive emails to protect data from being breached. 

Several types of emails could be harmful, including 

• Spam
• Malware
• Viruses
• Business Email Compromise (BEC)
• Fraudulent content
• Ransomware
• Denial-of-Service (DoS) or Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks
• Trojan
• Phishing attacks

What Are the Functions of a Secure Email Gateway? 

SEGs are designed to scan and filter incoming and outgoing emails on an email server. They employ a set of rules that the system uses to assess the potential for spam. Both inbound and outbound emails are protected against harmful content that can be transmitted between your devices and your network. 

As part of the scanning process, SEGs confirm whether any malicious content has been included in the domain, its contents, and any attachments inside the email. If the messages are found free of malware following the scanning process, the SEG routes them to the email server. The SEG also routes them to the user's mailbox if they do not contain malware. 

What are the features of secure email gateways? 

SEGs have their unique functions and features, but here are some of the most common security features that SEGs offer. 

Filtering spam mail 

Technology for spam filtering uses algorithms to identify spam from known spam email domains and quarantine or block it. 

Spammers use specific patterns of email content to detect new emails with spam-related patterns, such as keywords and malicious links, as well as new emails. In addition, this feature will allow users to report spam and block the sender if certain spam emails pass the gateway and enter your mailbox. 

Protection against malware and viruses 

Additionally, it protects you against malware and viruses that may infect your email network due to malware on your computer. The company employs antivirus software to scan emails and block or quarantine any that have viruses or malware in them, thereby protecting the company from liability. As cybercrime continues to evolve, it is imperative to keep your antivirus software up to date at all times. 

Archiving of e-mails 

Email services are managed by SEGs. You can use them to store and manage your organization's emails so that you can meet your organization's data management and legal compliance requirements. 

Security Email Gateways Can Help You Keep Your Emails Safe 

Various cyber threats can be found in the form of phishing, spam, denial-of-service attacks, and extremely advanced fraud attacks. Thus, individual, business, corporate, and government entities, along with their employees, should employ SIEGs to secure their email accounts from malicious entities that often seek to steal data or cause harm through other means.