Email Sent to the Wrong Person? How to Prevent Data Leaks
Misaddressed email is a mistake many people have made at one point or another. It’s simple enough to compose an email, hastily address it, and send it without double checking the recipient. In many cases, it can be a harmless mistake, even if you don’t notice it immediately. When you realize the error, you can send an apology, ask the recipient to disregard, and re-send the email to the appropriate person.
However, there are situations where a seemingly simple mistake can have catastrophic consequences. If your job involves the communication of confidential information and you send an email to the wrong person, it can become a much larger problem. Fortunately, there are tools in place to help you recall an email sent to the wrong person, as well as measures you can take to prevent these incidents from occurring in the first place.
The Danger of an Email Sent to the Wrong Person
On average, working professionals send more than 40 emails per day; for some, the number is much higher. The sheer volume of this electronic communication exacerbates the risk of misaddressed email, making it more likely that users will absentmindedly make a typo or choose the wrong autocomplete option and send an email to the wrong address. According to one survey, more than three-quarters (78.5%) of people in professional settings send an email to the wrong recipient at least once a year, and an additional 10.8% do this at least once a month.
For an individual, a gaffe like this can lead to embarrassment and even negatively impact relationships. It can also include higher stakes, like when the misaddressed message contains sensitive data such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), or financial credentials. This can lead to consequences like identity theft and financial losses. It is important to note that this is true even if the mistaken recipient is not a cybercriminal themselves, as their email and data security measures may not be sufficient to protect against attacks.
For organizations, there can be long-lasting reputational, financial, and even existential impacts. Companies often handle large volumes of valuable and sensitive enterprise, customer, and employee information; if there is a data leak via an email sent to the wrong person, then that information is compromised. Organizations in certain industries are more vulnerable to this kind of mistake because they store and send particularly sensitive data such as PHI, PII, and financial or legal documents.
The severity of the consequences results from a number of factors:
- Who is the mistaken recipient? If sensitive enterprise data gets sent to somebody outside the company, for example, the impact can be a lot more severe than if the email is sent to someone within the company who already has access to that data.
- Is there sensitive or confidential information in the email? Sending an email to the wrong person is not likely to cause much damage if the content of the message does not contain any information that the mistaken recipient is not authorized to access.
- Can you catch the error in time to recall the email? Some email platforms allow users to recall an email after it is sent, meaning that if you notice your mistake before the recipient opens it, you can unsend the message.
Depending on these and other variables, a misaddressed email can be anything from a harmless slipup to a dire cybersecurity incident. If sensitive data leaves an organization, it can go anywhere from there. Cybercriminals can use this information toward a variety of ends, including selling it to competitors, posting it on the internet publicly, and using it to extort money from the target.
Recall a Misaddressed Email
As mentioned above, some email platforms have implemented a native feature to recall or unsend a message in order to mitigate the high risk of misaddressed and mistakenly sent emails. Knowing how to use this function is vital, as you never know when you might need it.
How to Recall an Email in Outlook 365
Microsoft Outlook is one of the most popular email service providers available, especially for business communications. The platform has a Message Recall function that can retrieve an email after it is sent, using the following instructions.
- Navigate to the Sent Items folder
- Open the email you wish to recall
- From the Message tab, select Actions
- Select “Recall This Message”
As long as the recipient has not opened the message yet, this functionality will automatically move the unopened email to the recipients’ Deleted folder.
How to Recall an Email in Gmail
Gmail, the most popular email service provider worldwide, includes a feature called Undo Send. In contrast with Outlook, this function cannot recall a message from the recipient’s inbox. Instead, it simply delays the transmission for a short time after you hit “Send,” in order to give users a chance to realize and fix a mistake. The “Undo Send” option will pop up immediately after the message is sent if you have the feature enabled, and the window for cancellation can be altered as well.
- Open Google Settings
- Scroll down to see Undo Send
- Click “Enable”
- Set the cancellation window time
- Be sure to save your changes
After this, the “Undo Send” function should work as intended.
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Preventing Misaddressed Emails and Data Leaks
While the ability to recall or unsend an email mistakenly sent to the wrong recipient is a boon that can mitigate some risk, it is also crucial to employ practices and measures to prevent users from making these mistakes in the first place. This includes implementing a variety of policies and solutions to account for the many factors that play into a misaddressed email incident.
Some of the most fundamental considerations for preventing misaddressed emails include:
- Security Awareness Training (SAT): It is vital for all employees to receive regular and effective SAT to reduce human error and empower all users to fight threats. This training should instill good cyber hygiene practices and help users understand the role they play in the organization’s security strategy.
- Email Threat Protection: In addition to a simple misaddressed email, there are also cases where the “mistaken” recipient is in fact a bad actor attempting to launch a phishing attack. Implementing a solution with advanced threat protection capabilities can stop these attacks.
- Cybersecurity-Minded Culture: Organizations should foster an environment where cybersecurity is a priority for everyone, not just security and IT teams, and good cybersecurity practices are encouraged and nurtured throughout the company.
How VIPRE Can Help Prevent Sending Emails to the Wrong Person
VIPRE Security Group offers an easy-to-install and affordable technology that can help to prevent misaddressed emails. VIPRE SafeSend is a Data Loss Awareness (DLA) tool that makes it easy for users to review and verify email recipients before sending messages. There is a ‘Confirm External Recipients’ feature, for example, that prompts users to double-check the addresses of external email recipients to prevent accidental distribution of email to unintended recipients.
For organizations that deal with PHI, PII, or other particularly sensitive data, SafeSend’s Trigger Encryption feature can automatically scan emails and attachments to help prevent confidential data from being inadvertently shared. This doesn’t have to mean scanning every single email—you can also set up Custom Safe Domains/Emails to predefine authorized domains or recipients.
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