Why Email Backups Need Protection, Too
When we think of email security, we often focus on inbound traffic and what’s in our inboxes - catching spam, blocking phishing links, and preventing data breaches. But what about the emails that live quietly in your backups?
Case in point: analysts discovered that 40% of Microsoft 365 email backups contained phishing links that had been archived along with legitimate business email.
Backups are essential for compliance, disaster recovery, and continuity. However, if they contain malware-infected or phishing messages, they can pose a variety of hidden threats. Restoring those backups could unintentionally reintroduce malicious content into your network.
A secure email gateway (SEG) helps prevent this by filtering and sanitizing messages before they’re ever stored or archived. Let’s look at how SecurityGateway from MDaemon Technologies can help.
1. Blocking Malware Before It Reaches Your Server
SecurityGateway acts as a protective layer between the internet and your mail server, inspecting every inbound and outbound message. It uses multiple antivirus engines, heuristic analysis, and real-time malware detection to stop viruses, trojans, and ransomware before they can be delivered. This prevents infected emails from ever reaching your mail server, and ensures that your backups remain clean and free of malicious attachments or payloads that could cause trouble later.
2. Keeping Spam and Phishing Out of Your Archives
A huge portion of email traffic is spam or phishing. Archiving these messages wastes storage, slows down recovery, and increases risk.
SecurityGateway uses Bayesian filtering, DNS blocklists, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation to identify and block unwanted messages with exceptional accuracy. That means your backup archives contain only legitimate business emails, improving both storage efficiency and data integrity.
3. Neutralizing Hidden and Embedded Threats
Not all attacks are obvious. Modern cybercriminals often hide malicious code in URLs or within document macros.
SecurityGateway’s link and content scanning technologies examine embedded links and attachments for hidden threats. It can block emails containing links to known phishing or malware sites, and detect suspicious content in PDF and Office documents.
As a result, even sophisticated attacks never make it to your users, or your backup storage.
4. Outbound Scanning Protects Your Reputation
Email security isn’t just about keeping bad messages out - it’s also about keeping your domain's reputation intact.
If a user's account is compromised, SecurityGateway’s outbound filtering features can identify and stop spam or malware being sent from your organization. This prevents infected or inappropriate messages from being backed up, and helps you maintain a trustworthy sending reputation.
5. Cleaner Backups, Easier Compliance
Regulatory compliance standards like HIPAA, GDPR, and SOX require organizations to maintain secure, tamper-proof email records. SecurityGateway can help ensure your backups meet these standards by filtering threats and enforcing policy rules before messages are archived.
6. Seamless Integration with MDaemon and Other Mail Servers
SecurityGateway is designed to work with MDaemon Email Server, Microsoft Exchange, and any SMTP-compatible mail platform. It installs quickly and acts as a secure front line, protecting your users, your mail server, and your backups - all without complex configuration or third-party dependencies.
Final Thoughts
Email backups are vital for business continuity, but if they contain malware or phishing messages, they can become a security risk. A secure email gateway like SecurityGateway provides proactive protection that keeps your live system and your archived data clean and secure.
Don’t just back up your messages - make sure they’re safe before they’re stored.
Learn More
Learn how SecurityGateway helps organizations protect their email infrastructure from spam, phishing, and malware - keeping both active mail and backups safe from harm.
Download your free trial here
