Emails have dominated all other means of communications in the corporate sector since their inception. Business organizations are so dependent on these mails that most of the big corporations have their own email servers and setups to ensure 100% uptime of these services. From a mere hi to the most sensitive details, emails are used to send almost anything and everything. Flexibility, discretion and reliability of a speedy delivery have always been the main reasons why emails are so popular in the corporate sector.
However, these mails are not so discreet after all since they can be easily victimized by hackers for their mean intentions. Email security is one of the prime concerns of big corporations since most of their internal and external communication happens through this medium and it is expected that this communication remains private. Of the many ways adopted to ensure email security and spam filtering, email encryption can be seen as one of the most effective way. This encryption software ensures security in email communication by keeping the emails away from hackers using secret keys. Not just security, but they offer many other advantages in business operations. Read on to know how email encryption software works and what its advantages are.
How Does Email Encryption Work?
Before we understand how this system works, we need to understand how emails fall into the hands of perpetrators. Any electronic mail communication involves two email servers namely the source server and the destination server. And an email is bypassed when it is on its way from the source server to the destination server. Electronic mails are normally sent as plain texts and once the culprits have received the private communication, it is not so hard to read the content and extract all the required information.
But what if this private email is protected by a secret code or key? And unless the hackers know this key, it is impossible to decipher the mail and access its contents. This is exactly what email encryption (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_encryption) does, it protects a private mail using two keys known as the public key and the private key. While the public key is used to encrypt the email and made public, the private key is used to decrypt the mail and made known to the legitimate receiver only.
Advantages of Using Email Encryption Software
These services are provided as web-based services as well as electronic mail encryption software, which are integrated into the email systems. Here is a list of advantages the latter offers to enable smooth business operations.
• Email encryption software can be directly integrated into any mail system. Hence there is no need for a system that comes with a pre-installed encryption software. Thus software saves a lot of money on infrastructure and reduce overhead on maintenance as well.
• Adding to the flexibility email encryption software offers in terms of infrastructure, they are pretty advanced and don’t need a PKI (public key infrastructure) based system like previous.
• The cost of this software is negligible when compared to the losses borne by organizations when their emails are hacked or bypassed. Moreover, the software is way cheaper when compared to setting up a PKI based encryption system and maintaining it.
• Email encryption software are very easy to install and very easy to operate as well. Hence the employees need not require a special training to operate these software and organizations need not drill a hole in their pockets to organize training sessions.
• Apart from the price, installation and operation, the interface of the encryption software is flexible as well. One can choose to encrypt all the outgoing messages or enforce a policy based encryption which ensures only certain emails are encrypted adhering to the pre-defined policy.
• This software helps organizations to stay compliant with many compliance initiatives such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, GLBA and FERPA. These organizations set high standards on protection of private information. Hence the software not only helps them stay secure but also compliant.
• Implementation of email encryption software helps organizations in acquiring protection of legal proof. Protection of legal proof can be used as key evidences in case of disputes related to sending and receiving of emails. With this proof any allegations of miscommunication can be resolved.
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