Is Your Business Email Secure?
Email is a vital business tool, but it can also be a major security vulnerability. It is not encrypted, meaning that your email can be read en route to its destination. It is also vulnerable to government requests for data. Fortunately, there are now secure communications platforms that can help keep your data secure and protected.
If your email isn’t encrypted, the information that is in it can be read by anyone en route to its destination. The internet is a public and unsecure space, and unencrypted email is susceptible to eavesdropping, which is when a person reads an email without decrypting it. This is how the Sony Pictures hack happened. The hackers targeted executives to get their personal emails – which weren’t encrypted.
Once an email leaves the sender’s computer, it must pass through multiple servers before arriving at its destination. While this process is quick and simple, there’s still a risk that a third party could read the email while in transit. Because of this, it’s important to protect your email with encryption.
Governments have the right to access the contents of your email, but the privacy protections you enjoy in an encrypted email service may not be enough to keep them out of government hands. For example, the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) restricts the amount of PHI that can be sent via unencrypted email. It also requires that health care organizations retain email messages that contain PHI. Similarly, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards mandate that any email containing credit cardholder information be encrypted and maintained by the service provider.
While encryption technologies are improving, they still only protect the body of your message. Anyone monitoring your Internet connection can see the sender’s name, address, and location. Furthermore, the US government is able to capture most Internet traffic, because it can intercept it at large backbone gateways and routers. The government can then use this information to construct a detailed picture of your contacts and communications.
You can use S/MIME encryption to protect your email’s contents. To do this, first, make sure that both you and the recipient have TLS capabilities. Fortunately, this technology is built into your iOS device. To enable it, simply go to the advanced settings and choose S/MIME encryption. Then, change “Encrypt by default” to “yes” and click the lock icon to encrypt your emails.
Patches don’t fix bugs
Business email software is notorious for patching itself without actually fixing the bugs. When a patch is created, it should be clear what the problem is, and why it is needed. It should also provide a comprehensive summary of relevant discussion. In addition, patches should be separated into logical parts. For example, an API update and a new driver should be separate patches. Single changes to multiple files should be grouped together in one patch.
In addition to testing for bugs and identifying critical assets, a patch should also have a stress test. This allows users to test the patch and find out whether it fixes the problem.
End-to-end encryption
End-to-end encryption puts control back into your hands. This means you won’t have to worry about sending an email and having it read by an unauthorized person. All you need to do is provide your end-to-end encryption service with your private key, and it will encrypt your content automatically. This eliminates the need for manual encryption and processing.
