Is it Safe to Share Sensitive Information Through Email?

You would be hard-pressed to find an organization that doesn’t rely on email for communication in some way. It’s one of the easiest ways for businesses to communicate with internal and external stakeholders. But there is one thing that too many organizations fail to consider when using it to send confidential data.

Is email secure enough?

In short, email is not a secure way to share sensitive, private data. We’ll dive into why it isn’t appropriate to use for certain data sharing and some alternative solutions for securely communicating your confidential information, such as enterprise document management software.

What are the Pitfalls of Email?

Did you know that even faxing private business information is more trustworthy than sending it through email? Here are a few reasons why you should think twice before sending your employees’ private information through email in CSV files or other formats.

Email Passes Through Multiple Locations

Once you hit the send button on an email, it doesn’t go directly to the recipient’s inbox. Although it arrives in a matter of seconds, your email is actually bouncing from server to server and passing through virus checkers, firewalls and more

This extended journey gives hackers multiple unprotected entry points. Your email servers can continue to store old emails even after they’ve been deleted, so they’re not safe either.

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Unencrypted Emails

Encryption means that the message is scrambled as it bounces through servers and only the recipient and sender can unscramble it. One way to ensure that a message cannot be accessed by unauthorized parties is by encrypting the message. 

Unfortunately, emails are regularly written in plain text without any type of encryption to stop them from being intercepted.

Prone to Phishing Attempts

Your IT team has probably emphasized the importance of recognizing phishing attempts enough times. While you may be confident that you won’t fall for them, you don’t know how convincing they’ll look to the rest of your business.

The entire organization can be the target. If even just one person falls for it, their entire account can be compromised, giving an unwanted party access to everything within their email account.

If they have any sensitive information stored in their email (including emails in the deleted folder), there could be drastic consequences.

No Control Over Sent Emails

While you might be doing everything right to ensure the confidentiality of your emails, you have no control over what happens to them once they hit the recipient’s inbox.

Whether it’s intentional or not, the recipient can save or forward any kind of confidential business information. You won’t have any idea who may have newfound access to your business’s most important financial data anymore.

The Solution to Your Email Security Woes

There are a few options to help you combat the danger of insecure emails. Using an encrypted email service or enterprise document management software are two ways you can simplify your private information sharing.

Encrypted Emails, Guaranteed

To stop the biggest problem of emails getting intercepted, you can utilize an email encryption service.

This will scramble and unscramble the messages so they can only be accessed through the service’s portal. The sender and recipient will both have unique login credentials to read the encrypted emails completely separate from their everyday email login.

One downside to using this solution is that it can be technical and confusing. Users have to remember when to use the encryption service and when to use their everyday email account. It can take longer for them to locate an email between the two services and is more challenging to use overall.

Take Your Users to a Secure Sharing Portal Instead

The beauty of enterprise document management is that it allows users to share sensitive information completely separate from email. Instead of sending written communications through multiple servers to the recipient, you can bring them to the secure platform where they can access the document.

This secure sharing platform will offer access to those in and out of your organization. All they’ll need is an invitation to view it.

Enterprise document management software is the best way to securely share your confidential information because you can customize it in the way that works best for your organization. Here are a few ways you can make it work for you.

• Access that expires after a certain period of time
• Role-based access
• Options to allow a user to view, edit, or download the document
• Revoke access at any moment
• View who has accessed each document
• Protect all documents with 256-bit AES (Bank-level encryption)

Revver: The Ultimate File Sharing Solution

Revver is the ultimate enterprise document management software. It can protect all of your documents completely during storage and transfer. You’ll be able to rest easy knowing that your organization’s confidential files are always in good hands. Discover Revver today.