Email is the most common form of communication in business today. Every IT manger and CIO knows they need to block spam and viruses from entering their network via email – a real no-brainer these days. We even have world-class products and services to remove unwanted email at a truly impressive catch rate of well over 99%. What really keeps those responsible for email security up at night however, spans far beyond spam.
The amount of data transferred via email is staggering. Many are surprised to hear that email traffic even outpaces web traffic in overall bandwidth consumption. What matters more than bandwidth consumption however, is the type of data sent around. Now that the business world has moved drastically away from paper, the confidential documents you once kept in a physical file cabinet are now living in an easily transferrable format on employee laptops. Without proper training, these files can be sent externally without any awareness of a policy violation. A simple typo in the recipient field can take your financial report from the office of the CEO to the office of your ex-coworker who now works for a competitor.
Protecting sensitive information from leaking to the public is essential to not only your business’s competitive edge, but also its financial health. In the UK, for example, the Information Commissioners Office has been issuing monetary penalties to companies that violate the Data Protection Act, including cases where sensitive personal data was mistakenly leaked. Similar laws across the globe are being implemented, and for good reason. There is simply too much data in every employee’s possession to not enforce protection. By taking proactive steps to set Data Loss Prevention policies within your Email Security, you can stay in legal compliance and not worry about accidental leakage of sensitive information from your organization via email.
Those in industries such as healthcare or legal services know that the information they transfer is almost always sensitive, and needs extra layers of protection. The ability to encrypt email throughout its entire path, from anywhere, whether you remember to or not, can be a lawsuit prevention tool in itself. In the event that any correspondence needs to be pulled for an unexpected eDiscovery request or audit, having your email archived in the cloud can save your business money and the headache of searching through physical storage for historical messages.
What if your email service simply fails? Cloud-based email security solutions can offer you lossless email continuity in the event of an outage so you absolutely never lose your ability check and send email. No business can afford to have their main communication channel compromised. Take a step back and consider your comprehensive email security needs with not just the IT department, but your entire organization’s stability in mind.
By Tim Roddy
