Sometimes the most boring and familiar technologies can pose the greatest security risks. Administrators may neglect them and users often choose convenience over being careful. The good news is that implementing a few simple best practices can dramatically improve your organization’s email security:
- Use a strong, unique password: Use long, complex passwords that are unique to your email account and do not reuse passwords across multiple accounts. This is probably the single biggest thing people can do to improve email security. And while this sounds easy, most people end up choosing simple, more familiar passwords that are easy to remember. Enabling two-factor authentication is also a good idea to add an extra layer of security to your account.
- Be wary of suspicious emails: This means don't click on links or download attachments from unknown or suspicious sources. Sometimes these can be difficult to spot, so always take a close look at both the email and its source. Be especially cautious of emails that contain urgent or threatening language or that request personal information.
- Use encryption: Try using encrypted email services or install an encryption plugin for your email client to protect the content of your emails from being intercepted or read by unauthorized individuals. This level of security has become more mainstream and best practice companies are using it for all of their ongoing communications.
- Keep software and security protocols up to date: One of the most common ways hackers can gain access to your systems is to exploit known vulnerabilities. Make sure that your email client and any security software you are using are up to date with the latest patches and updates.
- Use a secure network: The recent rise in people working remotely means more and more employees now access their email from either their home or a non secure public network. When accessing your email from a public Wi-Fi network, use a virtual private network (VPN) to protect your connection.
- Backup your data: Most people don’t think anything bad is ever going to happen to them and can neglect to plan for what to do if and when it does. Regularly backing up your email data will ensure you don't lose access to important information and will mean you’ll be able to quickly recover in the event of a security breach.
- Educate employees: Train your employees on email security best practices, such as how to spot and report suspicious emails and how to use email encryption and other security measures. Don’t assume everyone knows these best practices or why they’re important.
- Use a firewall: A firewall can help to protect your network from cyber threats by blocking unauthorized access and suspicious traffic.
Email security is fundamental to every organization. Practicing these proven tips will minimize the chance that something bad will happen.
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October 20, 2025 — Early today, Amazon Web Services experienced a major incident centered in its US‑EAST‑1 (N. Virginia) region. AWS reports the event began around 12:11 a.m. PT and tied back to DNS resolution affecting DynamoDB , with mitigation within a couple of hours and recovery continuing thereafter. As the outage rippled, popular services like Snapchat, Venmo, Ring, Roblox, Fortnite , and even some Amazon properties saw disruptions before recovering. If your apps or data are anchored to a single cloud, a morning like this can turn into a help‑desk fire drill. A multi‑cloud or cloud‑smart approach helps you ride through these moments with minimal end‑user impact. What happened (and why it matters) Single‑region fragility: US‑EAST‑1 is massive—and when it sneezes, the internet catches a cold. Incidents here have a history of wide blast radius. Shared dependencies: DNS issues to core services (like DynamoDB endpoints) can cascade across workloads that never directly “touch” that service. Multi‑cloud: practical resilience, not buzzwords For mid‑sized orgs, schools, and local government, multi‑cloud doesn’t have to mean “every app in every cloud.” It means thoughtful redundancy where it counts : Multi‑region or multi‑provider failover for critical apps Run active/standby across AWS and Azure (or another provider), or at least across two AWS regions with automated failover. Start with citizen‑facing portals, SIS/LMS access, emergency comms, and payment gateways. Portable platforms Use Kubernetes and containers, keep state externalized, and standardize infra with Terraform/Ansible so you can redeploy fast when a region (or a provider) wobbles. (Today’s DNS hiccup is exactly the kind of scenario this protects against.) Resilient data layers Replicate data asynchronously across clouds/regions; choose databases with cross‑region failover and test RPO/RTO quarterly. If you rely on a managed database tied to one region, design an escape hatch. Traffic and identity that float Use global traffic managers/DNS to shift users automatically; keep identity (MFA/SSO) highly available and not hard‑wired to a single provider’s control plane. Run the playbook Document health checks, automated cutover, and comms templates. Then practice —tabletops and live failovers. Many services today recovered within hours, but only teams with rehearsed playbooks avoided user‑visible downtime. The bottom line Cloud concentration risk is real. Outages will happen—what matters is whether your constituents, students, and staff feel it. A pragmatic multi‑cloud stance limits the blast radius and keeps your mission‑critical services online when one provider has a bad day. Need a resilience check? Akins IT can help you prioritize which systems should be multi‑cloud, design the right level of redundancy, and validate your failover plan—without overspending. Let’s start with a quick, 30‑minute review of your most critical services and RPO/RTO targets. (No slideware, just actionable next steps.)
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