What is "blacklisting" in the context of email security?

Blacklisting is a widely recognized practice in email security that involves blocking emails from known malicious senders. This technique is essential for protecting users from phishing attempts, spam, and various forms of cyber threats that emanate from identified sources. By maintaining a list of these senders, email security systems can automatically filter out harmful messages before they reach the inbox of a user. This proactive approach significantly reduces the risk of exposure to scams, malware, and other security issues.

In contrast, whitelisting involves allowing emails from trusted domains, which is a different strategy for managing email communications. Data encryption is aimed at ensuring the confidentiality of messages rather than blocking them. Tagging emails for review focuses on the identification of messages that require further examination, which is not a direct form of prevention like blacklisting is. Through blacklisting, email security systems effectively enhance user protection by preemptively filtering out dangerous communications.