{"id":11249,"date":"2025-07-10T16:17:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T14:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.retarus.com\/blog\/en\/gefaehrliche-dateitypen-warum-konsequentes-blockieren-sinnvoll-sein-kann\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T09:11:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T07:11:37","slug":"dangerous-file-types-why-consistently-blocking-them-may-be-the-smart-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retarus.com\/blog\/en\/dangerous-file-types-why-consistently-blocking-them-may-be-the-smart-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Dangerous File Types: Why Consistently Blocking Them May Be the Smart Approach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In the majority of cyberattacks, email attachments remain the preferred vehicle for malicious contents. Despite facing defense mechanisms, intelligent threat detection and AI-powered analytics, attackers have repeatedly proven their ability to sneak malware into corporate networks \u2013 especially by way of email attachments. In this context, one crucial approach to email security is often underrated \u2013 the basic, preventive blocking of all potentially harmful file formats regardless of threat detection outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-risk-caused-by-seemingly-harmless-attachments\">Risk caused by seemingly harmless attachments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Attackers make use of legitimate tools or file formats such as Java or PowerShell files as well as office documents containing imbedded macros or password protected archives. Although potentially harmful, from a technical perspective many of these formats initially appear inconspicuous, meaning that they are not always reliably detected by conventional AV engines or even sandboxes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A typical example from the real world: In the day-to-day administration of a hospital or medical laboratory, staff don\u2019t usually encounter java files (.jar) or executable scripts (.ps1, .vbs). Bank employees, likewise, generally don\u2019t need to work with compressed, password protected archives (at least not in their email inboxes). Structured formats such as PDF, Excel or XML, which can be analyzed more easily and securely, are more widespread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-knowledge-of-the-sector-s-characteristic-file-formats-is-beneficial\">Knowledge of the sector\u2019s characteristic file formats is beneficial<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Rather than blocking messages generally, a more nuanced view which takes the specific sector into consideration can help companies to purposefully bolster their security. In many sectors, it is clearly evident which file formats are required in daily business communication \u2013 and which invariably represent a risk. The same approach can be applied to specific sectors or job profiles within a company. In this way, the attack surface can be reduced considerably without compromising on the efficiency of communication or running the risk of filtering out legitimate emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-additional-security-layer-with-retarus-attachment-blocker\">Additional security layer with Retarus Attachment Blocker<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Complementing our already comprehensive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retarus.com\/de\/products\/email-security\/advanced-threat-protection\/\">advanced threat detection<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.retarus.com\/products\/email-security\/sandboxing\/\">and AI-based sandboxing technologies<\/a> with the targeted, systematic blocking of file types adds an extra layer of protection to bolster security substantially within corporate email communications. The <strong>Retarus Attachment Blocker<\/strong> allows both inbound and outbound emails to be filtered based on previously defined rules \u2013 for instance, according to file extensions, MIME types or suspect features like password protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.retarus.com\/blog\/de\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/07\/AB-Outbound.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19559\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em><em>In the myEAS self-service portal, it will also be possible to configure rule sets and the corresponding admin notifications.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks to the newly expanded range of configuration options, IT administrators are set to benefit from an even more powerful tool. Nuanced filtering rules and sophisticated notification functions now enable the service to be adapted with more ease and precision to meet the specific requirements at your company. Look out for more on this topic in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Complementing our already comprehensive advanced threat detection and AI-based sandboxing technologies with the targeted, systematic blocking of file types adds an extra layer of protection to bolster security substantially within corporate email communications. The Retarus Attachment Blocker allows both inbound and outbound emails to be filtered based on previously defined rules \u2013 for instance, according to file extensions, MIME types or suspect features like password protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":11250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102],"class_list":["post-11249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-product-news","tag-email-security"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.7.1 (Yoast SEO v25.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dangerous File Types: Why Consistently Blocking Them May Be the Smart Approach - Retarus Corporate Blog - EN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Complementing our already comprehensive advanced threat detection and AI-based sandboxing technologies with the targeted, systematic blocking of file types adds an extra layer of protection to bolster security substantially within corporate email communications. The Retarus Attachment Blocker allows both inbound and outbound emails to be filtered based on previously defined rules \u2013 for instance, according to file extensions, MIME types or suspect features like password protection.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.retarus.com\/blog\/en\/dangerous-file-types-why-consistently-blocking-them-may-be-the-smart-approach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dangerous File Types: Why Consistently Blocking Them May Be the Smart Approach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Complementing our already comprehensive advanced threat detection and AI-based sandboxing technologies with the targeted, systematic blocking of file types adds an extra layer of protection to bolster security substantially within corporate email communications. 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