Opinion: Entrust VP talks email encryption

Tim Ayling, vice president APAC for Entrust talks to CRN about encrypted email and why people need to take care of exchanging sensitive information over the internet.

‘The benefits of email communication are numerous and widely recognised, but because of its vast size and reach, many people have a false sense of security with respect to email—and think that a breach could never happen to their communications.

Due to this false sense of security, individuals within organisations exchange sensitive information online without giving it a second thought — but at what potential cost to your organisation?

According to a survey conducted by Osterman Research, "83 percent of organisations believe that most sensitive information leakage is accidental, due in part to employees simply not knowing the policy or not realising the information they are sending is sensitive."

Secured email can provide not only peace of mind for privacy protection, but also productivity enhancement by enabling organisations to move more sensitive and higher value transactions online, as well as enabling electronic delivery of regular communications with customers and partners (such as billing and account statements, insurance claims and application processing documents).

Messages that were previously limited to more traditional methods of communication such as fax or postal mail due to concerns about information security can now be moved online with a similar level of assurance of confidentiality as before.

However, in order to mitigate risk while helping to enable new and higher sensitive communications online, security and trust are essential.

Unauthorised access to board reports, customer account information, client records, sales forecasts, intellectual property or other valuable information can do significant damage to an organisation’s brand and competitive position.

The ability to secure email communications not only helps protect and build a company’s brand equity, but can also help to strengthen relationships with its suppliers, partners and customers — all while helping to contribute to good internal controls on information privacy.

Regardless of whether organisations are being driven by competitive pressures, corporate governance guidelines, or an increased need for sharing sensitive information, the added value and lower costs of using email encryption are clear.

The question is, “what has stopped organisations in investing in secure mail until now?”'