5 Ways to Make Business Email More Secure
Email is how most businesses communicate — and, by a wide margin, how most attacks arrive. The good news is that a handful of sensible measures dramatically cut the risk of a mailbox breach or a costly invoice scam. Here are the ones that matter most, in order.
1. Turn on multi-factor authentication
MFA is the single most effective step you can take. Even if a password is phished or guessed, an attacker can't get into the mailbox without the second factor — a code or a tap on your phone. If you do nothing else from this list, do this. See our guide to passwords and MFA.
2. Train your team to spot phishing
Most email attacks ultimately rely on a person clicking a link or opening an attachment. Technology helps, but an aware team is your best filter. Make sure everyone knows the warning signs — unexpected urgency, mismatched sender addresses, odd links — and, crucially, that they won't get in trouble for reporting a mistake. A quick report stops one click becoming a company-wide problem.
3. Beware invoice and payment fraud
This is the one that catches businesses for real money. Criminals impersonate suppliers or directors — often from a genuine, compromised mailbox — to redirect payments or change bank details. The rule that defeats it: always verify any change to payment details by phone, using a number you already hold, never one from the email. Build it into your finance process so it doesn't depend on someone being suspicious that day.
4. Use spam and link filtering
Good filtering catches a large share of malicious mail before it ever reaches an inbox, and modern tools re-check links at the moment they're clicked — useful because a link can be harmless when sent and weaponised later. It's a quiet layer that removes a lot of risk without your team noticing.
5. Lock down forwarding and old accounts
Two things attackers love: secret mailbox forwarding rules (so they keep reading your mail after you've changed the password) and former employees' accounts left active. Check for unexpected rules periodically, and disable leavers' accounts promptly as part of your offboarding.
6. Back up your mailboxes
Cloud email providers keep the service running, but recovering data you (or an attacker) delete is largely your responsibility, and their retention windows are shorter than people assume. Dedicated backup covers that gap — more in our backup guide.
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Official guidance: You can report scam emails free to the NCSC at report@phishing.gov.uk, and read more official advice from the NCSC Cyber Aware campaign.