Should your business only allow encrypted email?
In March 2017, the Independent reported that hackers were selling 25 million Gmail and Yahoo accounts. These sales were taking place on the dark web. In October of the same year, CNN revealed that a data breach at Yahoo had affected 3 billion accounts including Tumblr, Fantasy, Flickr, and emails. These statistics prove that hacking is an ongoing problem in today's world.
In March 2017, the Independent reported that hackers were selling 25 million Gmail and Yahoo accounts. These sales were taking place on the dark web. In October of the same year, CNN revealed that a data breach at Yahoo had affected 3 billion accounts including Tumblr, Fantasy, Flickr, and emails. These statistics prove that hacking is an ongoing problem in today's world.
At the same time, electronic communication is a critical part of any business because it is quick and inexpensive. For example, you can send emails of proposals, orders, invoices, memos, and financial statements to relevant people or institutions. Unfortunately, the possibility of unscrupulous people getting hold of this information is high unless you have the correct security systems in place.
These systems include web application firewalls, robust access controls, and regular software updates. Others are hiding admin pages, tightening network security, and limiting uploads. Unfortunately, breaches are still possible even if you implement all of these measures. Consequently, encrypting messages may be the ultimate solution to hacks on your system.
Cases Where Message Encryption Is Critical
Sensitive Emails In February 2015, the Radicati Group revealed that people send 2.4 million emails every second. Some of these emails are of little consequence to the business owners, employees, or the ordinary individuals who received or forwarded them. However, some of them can destroy personal and business relationships. For example, emails about your business strategies or financial situation.
Protecting this sensitive information is critical. You can do that through email encryption. In this case, no one will read your email even if a hack into your gmail accounts occurs. In fact, you can transfer the message over any network without worrying about someone hacking into the system and reading it. Only the individual on the other end can decrypt it and then read it.
This protection ensures that your organization avoids unauthorized disclosures because of leaked emails. More importantly, you will protect the personal information that your employees share or receive. It is worth noting that email encryption is an additional layer of security. You need other tiers as well including single sign-on, filtering of spam and antivirus protection.
Compliance with Mandatory Regulations
Hackers steal your records so that they can sell it to the highest bidder. It is worth noting that some sectors of the economy attract higher bids than others do. Therefore, hackers will target some areas of the economy more than they do others. They include healthcare, financial services, government agencies, and transport companies.
Governments may put in place additional regulations to prevent these illegal activities in these sectors. In some cases, these measures include the use of encrypted messages when an employee or business owner is communicating via email. Compliance with such regulations is mandatory. It is beneficial for the business as well based on media reports and statistical data
For example, in April 2017, Forbes reported that hackers would buy a social security number at 10 cents. At the same time, the going rate for a credit card number is 25 cents. However, the price for electronic medical records stood at $10,000. That means hackers value them if they would pay such a high sum for the details of a single person.
Stakeholders in the medical industry are aware of the price that hackers place on these records. Consequently, they adopt additional rules and regulations to protect this data To put it differently, they minimize their dependence on standard security measures. Instead, they go for enhanced methods as well such as encrypted emails.
Can You Encrypt All Your Messages?
The complexities involved in the encryption and decryption of email are too much for regular communication. In other words, no one has the stomach for them when the information they send and receive through their emails is inconsequential. In most cases, employees will opt for other means of communication that are quick and convenient instead of using encrypted emails.
You can try alternatives such as digital certificates, but they lead to unnecessary complexities as well Consequently, the best course of action is to identify employees who send and receive sensitive information. Train them on the use of encrypted emails. Educate them on the importance of this security feature to the company. Then guide them until they excel at it
Another Viable Solution
Use your Gmail accounts as you usually do. Then adopt a single network approach for critical emails. In this case, your employees, clients, and business partners will have access to a secure platform where they can receive sensitive information. This platform can be the company's website with a login page for your stakeholders.