While it’s well-known that email represents a significant source of cybersecurity threats, it’s not just the text included in emails that’s worrisome; images can be malicious as well. What’s more, images in emails may also present a threat of a different kind, including data leaks and content that’s not suitable for the workplace.
That's why it's increasingly important for a secure email gateway or email security service to support image analysis and the ability to identify content that may present a threat. The good news is that artificial intelligence technology can now do just that. When incorporated into your secure email gateway, AI-based image analysis adds an important layer of protection to your overall cybersecurity strategy. In this post, we’ll examine some of the use cases where the technology can be particularly valuable.
Image-Based Cyber Threats
Cybercriminals send an estimated 3.4 billion phishing emails every day, according to cybersecurity education provider StationX. That translates to more than a trillion phishing emails every year.
While we’ve previously covered how generative AI (GenAI) is making it easier for threat actors to craft effective phishing emails, images present another fruitful avenue. QR codes can include malicious links that many secure email gateways won’t catch – unless they support AI-based image analysis. To best protect against these next-gen threats, a secure email gateway should identify and examine the QR code embedded within an email and identify whether it’s malicious before allowing an end user to click on it.
How Images Factor into Data Loss Prevention
On the flip side of the inbound phishing threat is data loss prevention (DLP), which involves your own employees using email for the unauthorized transmission of data from inside your organization. While you may already have a DLP tool, it may not be able to detect when an employee, especially those planning to leave their organization, attempts to email an image that contains valuable information.
DLP is of concern in myriad vertical industries, including law firms, technology companies, engineering and architectural firms, manufacturers, financial companies, and more. Images containing sensitive data can include credit cards, technical drawings, blueprints, CAD images, and the like. Unauthorized or accidental sharing of such images can result in loss of intellectual property and non-compliance with various industry regulations.
Employees may also attempt to skirt DLP tools by taking photos of sensitive documents and emailing them to their personal email. No matter whether it's for their legitimate use or some nefarious means, such actions can likewise result in data loss.
In each case, an AI-based image analyzer feature can detect such instances, stop the threat, and keep your intellectual property within your business.
Identifying NSFW Content
Whether inbound or outbound, images can contain various types of not-safe-for-work (NSFW) content that does not belong in the workplace. While pornography obviously falls into this category, so can less blatant risqué images, which may likewise be objectionable or offensive to many employees. That’s especially true in environments such as educational or religious organizations.
Images depicting graphic violence, even if fake or staged, can likewise be upsetting in the workplace (or anywhere, for that matter). Extremist groups, for example, may employ such violent digital images or videos to disseminate their messages and recruit followers. Such content clearly has no place in the workplace.
Most organizations would likewise prefer their employees not to send or receive images of drug consumption and related paraphernalia. They can be seen as promoting drug use or even serve as evidence in criminal proceedings, causing reputational harm.
Even some memes may contain demeaning, racist, and offensive content. Here again, it can send the wrong message if employees distribute such content via corporate email, potentially having a negative effect on company culture and making the company legally liable for permitting the transmission of these images within your organization.
Trustwave MailMarshal – Image Analysis Included
The Trustwave MailMarshal email security gateway includes AI-based image analysis technology that can protect against each of these email threats.
Trustwave’s Image Analyzer feature helps protect both employees and employers by blocking NSFW content from entering the organization or being sent out. This not only prevents employees from being exposed to inappropriate material but also helps employers maintain compliance and reduce the risk of legal liability.
Similarly, Image Analyzer can help prevent data leaks, whether from a true insider threat or innocent mistakes. And lastly, it can help protect your organization from QR code-based threats, or quishing, which has been a growing threat over the last 12-18 months.
To learn more, visit the MailMarshal page or contact us for additional information.
