URL Protection
What is URL protection?
URL protection is an email security measure used to detect and block malicious hyperlinks (URLs) embedded in incoming emails. It is a cybersecurity technique in which every URL embedded within an email is scanned and analyzed for potential email security threats.
Why is URL protection in emails important?
Email remains the most widely used and accepted method of professional communication. While businesses and organizations deploy email security systems to detect common threats like spam, spoofing, phishing, malware, etc., these systems may overlook malicious URLs embedded within incoming emails. Sometimes, attackers may disguise harmful websites using shortened or deceptive links within the email body or attachments. If an email security system only scans the email header or static content at the time of delivery, these malicious URLs may go undetected. When clicked, such links can:
- Redirect to fake login pages designed to mimic trusted websites, resulting in credential harvesting.
- Trigger an automatic download of malicious software like spyware, keylogger, etc., onto the user’s system.
- Lead to ransomware infection.
- Lead to zero-day exploit sites.
Hence, an advanced email security system with a URL protection feature like Zoho eProtect is essential to prevent users from falling victim to such attacks.
What does URL protection do?
URL protection is a critical feature of modern email security solutions that helps safeguard users and organizations from email based cybersecurity threats delivered through the hyperlinks embedded in email content.
URL protection in email security solutions provides multi-layer defense against potential threats. Here is how URL protection defends users:
1. URL rewriting:
When an email is received, every URL within an email content is rewritten into safe, trackable URLs. This process:
- Removes tracking parameters embedded in the original links, thereby protecting the user's personal data from third-party trackers.
- Redirects users through a security checkpoint, where the URL is analyzed for cyber threats, before they reach the destination website.
2. Time-of-click protection:
When a user clicks a rewritten link, they are redirected to a security checkpoint, where the system performs a real-time scan to assess the URL for phishing, malware, or suspicious behavior.
- If the URL is safe, the user is forwarded to the URL's intended destination.
- If the link is identified as malicious or suspicious, the system blocks access and displays a warning message to the user.
This real-time analysis at the moment of clicking protects users from delayed threats, where a previously safe link becomes malicious after the email is delivered.
3. Threat detection via block list comparison:
Every URL in an email is analyzed and compared against known malicious domains and hosts in common block lists. If a match is found, access is immediately blocked.
4. Credential phishing detection:
URLs are evaluated for credential content to detect fraudulent, credential-phishing sites that may try to extract user credentials like login passwords, financial data, etc. This helps prevent credential theft and Business Email Compromise (BEC), which often originate from such phishing emails.
5. Zero-day attacks prevention:
URL protection performs real-time scanning, behavior analysis, and intelligent filtering, which helps to detect and block zero-day threats before they can compromise user's security.
6. Detecting malicious URLs in email attachments:
URL protection not only scans URLs within an email content for malicious content, but also scans URLs embedded within email attachments for potential threats.