3 Ways Email Encryption Keeps Your Messages Safe

Encryption is a very important tool in today’s business environment, especially if you are trying to protect your email communications. Today, we’ll discuss the benefits of using encryption for your business’ communications solutions, but without an understanding of what encryption actually is, the conversation might be a little harder to understand.

Defining Encryption
Encryption means that your data is scrambled in a way that obscures it from just anyone viewing it. What this means for email is that only the intended recipient can decrypt it, preventing those who might try to intercept it from being able to read it. For business email, this is particularly helpful.

Security
Security is the biggest reason to use encryption, and since it’s such an effective way to obscure data from prying eyes, it’s no wonder why. Many businesses utilize private or sensitive data, making it extremely important that it’s not exposed while in transit. In contrast to the way that hackers used to go about their business--breaking into networks and stealing data--many have opted instead to simply take a peek at the data while it’s moving from point A to point B. Encryption means they can’t do this anymore… well, they can, but they won’t see anything worth stealing due to the encryption scrambling the data.

Compliance
If your industry is one that must comply with regulations regarding data privacy, you might have to use encryption, so you can dodge hefty fines for not doing so. One of the best examples is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. What this states is that health information and records absolutely cannot be shared without the patient’s consent, meaning that if a hacker were to steal this information, the company responsible for storing it would be in direct violation of HIPAA. If you use encryption to make sure this doesn’t happen, you can protect your business from liability for this and your users from having their personal information stolen.

Efficiency
If you take the right measures to protect your email systems, then you’ll make the entire process easier as a whole. If you take the time to install systems that automatically encrypt your email, then that means you won’t have to manually do it.

Directive can help you secure your email solution. To learn more, reach out to us at 607.433.2200.