Mimecast – not to be confused with Minecraft – is a comprehensive cyber security solution which tackles email borne phishing attacks and much more.

And just like the video game Minecraft, which is probably your son or daughter’s favourite piece of software, Mimecast will soon become yours.

Ok, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch…

We don’t expect you to be spending hours a day on this software. In fact, if you’ve got an IT team you probably won’t be spending any time on it. But with its range of excellent features you’ll certainly be glad you’ve got it.

Part of the point of using Mimecast, is actually so you don’t have to spend hours sorting out your IT. Instead you can get on with your work unhindered by the cyber threats that may be facing your organisation.

We go through some of the great things it can do in this post.

No phishing allowed here

If you read our post on phishing attacks, you’ll know all about the dangers they pose to businesses of all sizes. If you didn’t, check it out here! The key thing is these are becoming more common because they’re a lot harder to protect against.

In it we recommended Mimecast as a great solution to keep your organisation safe. But rather than just telling you it’s great we want to explain why.

You’d be forgiven for thinking; ‘surely my anti-virus package or email client’s built in security has all my security woes covered?’

Do you really need something else?

Well the reality is, much of the standard cyber security out there is simply too limited. Often there is only one layer of security and it doesn’t account for the level of sophistication that some hackers employ.

It’s also no good just protecting your organisation from external threats when the prevention of threats spreading internally is just as important. These can be even more dangerous as they are often unexpected.

Mimecast offers a much more comprehensive suite of solutions for email security. It also has some other cool features including safe data archiving.

Using multiple detection engines and intelligence feeds, the software is built to protect you from Spear Phishing, malware and more.

As we mentioned in our blog post on Phishing, the attacks which occur between humans and largely rely on human error to succeed, are harder to stop than standard network borne viruses. But the threat can be hugely alleviated.

Soo what does it actually do?

If you couldn’t tell already, we’re big fans of this system. But it’s time to stop gushing and actually give you some features.

Here we explain some of the cool features (cool to us anyway!) of this powerful software.

1. URL’s authenticated

One of the main indicators of whether an email is dodgy or not is its URL. Mimecast uses DNS authentication to check a domain name’s origin or IP address in order to establish where an email is actually coming from and therefore combat spoofing.

It will filter out malicious URL’s and also knows which brands and organisations are often mimicked. The URL’s may have typos and non-western characters and the software will detect this immediately before it causes any further damage.

One reason it has the intelligence to detect this information is down to its operations centre.

2. Regular and rapid updates

Part of what makes Mimecast so effective at tackling threats is the Mimecast Security Operations Centre or MSOC.

This team of analysts and researchers ensures that you’re not on your own. They monitor threats globally by analysing billions of emails per month. They’re also able to distribute regular and rapid updates to your system as and when is necessary.

Mimecast also includes a threat intelligence dashboard which gives you up to date info about the latest threats and monitors threats occurring in your region so you can be aware of what’s out there. The software of course will sort the rest.

3. Protection from dodgy attachments

The delivery of malware via an attacker’s email is still a common threat. But not all malware is obvious and some can be highly targeted towards your specific organisation.

As such it may slip through the net of standard security systems. Mimecast uses multiple engines to gain broader detection and also scans static files to ensure they don’t contain abnormal code or suspicious contents.

If threats are found it can be dealt with safely, blocking it if necessary or converting it if the file is needed but corrupted.

4. Detect the imposter

Impersonation is increasingly common and is often used in sophisticated spear phishing attacks to directly target an organisation.

The idea is to use the identities of trusted employees often higher in command, in order to gain unsolicited access. The Mimecast solution involves real time scanning of inbound emails to detect discrepancies in headers and footers, domain similarity and untoward body content.

You will also have access to a custom targeted threat dictionary which includes key terms attackers often use. Administrator control will also allow you to handle emails and mark them as suspicious for the rest of your organisation.

The list goes on…

There are other Mimecast tools on offer but we’d be here all day if we listed them. It also has a section devoted to data archiving and recovery using the cloud as well as an award-winning security awareness training program.

As we said, a lot of the issues are down to human error so if you can educate your employees on what to expect then that’s going to save a lot of headaches.

Mimecast works alongside good human awareness to create an effective barrier around your organisation.

So there you go, hopefully you now have a better understanding of how it all works. If you want to learn more about Mimecast and how you can implement it in your organisation give us a call or look on their website for more info.