Strategy Guide

Preventing human error: Solving misdirected emails on Microsoft 365

Email has the highest risk of data loss - more than any other form of business communication. In fact, 91% of organizations experienced outbound email data breaches in their Microsoft 365 environment in the last year.

Human error is virtually impossible to prevent using traditional static DLP rules and solutions, which are too rigid to effectively prevent data loss caused by human error over email. While the fast, free-flowing exchange of information enabled by email is critical for businesses, these productivity tools only widen the surface area for risk.

Relying on people to detect their own mistakes is not enough

As the reporting loop for email data loss relies on the recipient(s) to notice the mistake and then notify the sender, and then for the sender to notify the organization, the issue is on average ten times worse than the Security team realizes.

Cybersecurity leaders share how outbound email security incidents have impacted their organizations

Impacts from outbound email security incidents affect both the organization as a whole and the individual employee involved.

Even when security incidents are kept out of the headlines, clients and data subjects must be informed. While human error is universal to every organization, outbound email security incidents are often interpreted as careless or negligent

86%

suffered negative impacts due to an outbound breach

49%

saw financial loss due to regulatory penalties

 Traditional email DLP solutions rely on static rules to prevent data loss. These solutions, however, take a data-led approach to security, rather than a behavior-based approach, and therefore cannot dynamically respond to the way people use email on a day-to-day basis.

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