14 Jun 2019
Compliance, Cybersecurity Randy Yu 0 comment

Thinking Inside the Box: Addressing Internal Cyber Vulnerabilities

In cybersecurity, it’s easy to become obsessed over external malicious factors and lose sight of the whole picture which includes internal vulnerabilities. When it comes to cybersecurity, the best defense includes shoring up your internal defenses because many critical vulnerabilities are too close to home for comfort.

What is an internal cyber vulnerability?

A vulnerability is a flaw in a system that exposes the system to risk of attack. In cybersecurity, these vulnerabilities can be related to the computer systems and processes and procedures you use. While you may know famous software vulnerabilities like Heartbleed and WannaCry, internal vulnerabilities can be much more mundane. For example, someone leaving the default password on a router or assuming your employees know how to recognize spear phishing attacks can lead to a lot of heartache for a chief information security officer.

As they say in sports, “The best defense is a good offense.” In this case, a good offense includes taking a proactive approach to identifying and fixing vulnerabilities, which we’ll cover next.

How to identify cyber vulnerabilities in enterprise-level organizations

Before you can identify cyber vulnerabilities, you must have a clear idea of your organizational assets, including intellectual property. Frédéric Virmont, a seasoned cybersecurity expert, says, “You have to identify what’s critical for the business: servers, applications, everything. Once you identify those critical assets, then you can make a plan to secure them and ensure they’re maintained with security patches.”

After identifying your critical business assets, you can expose and triage any vulnerabilities through various security tools—and then patch them up.

Put staff on your list of organizational assets as cyber vulnerabilities include accidental and intentional insider attacks by employees.

Six ways to reduce internal cyber vulnerabilities with pre-emptive measures

 

1) Encrypt data and communications – Protect your data while it’s in transit and at rest with a user-friendly encryption solution. Billions of emails are sent every day and without encryption each one represents a security risk. And in 2018, 4.8 billion records were stolen during breaches and less than three per cent of those records were encrypted.

2) Teach employees about cybersecurity – A recent PwC report in the US found that 32 percent of respondents consider insider threats more costly and damaging than external incidents. Because employees are on the frontline of cybersecurity, it’s essential to educate them about the importance of using security programs and processes and how to identify and report suspicious incidents. Cybercrime is increasingly sophisticated—especially social engineering and spear phishing—which is why regular and effective cybersecurity training is necessary for all staff.

3) Beef up your security policies – Make sure your policies support your security efforts. Some of the best practices include:

  • Limiting user access through assigning appropriate permissions to non-IT employees
  • Setting appropriate guidelines for creating strong passwords or enforcing two-factor authentication
  • Limiting Internet usage by defining or controlling what type of content can be viewed
  • Defining file storage locations for employees and denying usage of USB drives or personal cloud storage
  • Choosing policy-based encryption with flexible delivery methods for communications
  • Effective vetting of third-party vendors

 

4) Have an up-to-date disaster recovery plan – A disaster recovery plan allows all staff to act swiftly—using prepared strategy—when disaster strikes. This way, organizational efforts can go towards closing the vulnerability and monitoring it, rather than trying to figure out what to do in the middle of a crisis.

5) Don’t migrate vulnerabilities to the cloud – While there are many benefits to offloading on-premise servers and applications to the cloud, organizations must avoid bringing along existing vulnerabilities with them. Implementing security tools prior to cloud migration is essential.

6) Communicate effectively with the board – Since they may not always understand the technical assets, many boards shy away from cybersecurity risk management. Instead of communicating about tech specs, talk to the board about the cost of not implementing security measures, return on investment trends and reputation management with clients. Raphael Narezzi suggests talking to the board of directors like this, “It can be a cost today, but I guarantee you, the scenario we see when a board acts before an event, is a completely different scenario than when they don’t act at all.”

The benefits of closing internal vulnerabilities

Closing internal vulnerabilities takes time, resources and expertise and is now part of the cost of doing business. But there are benefits. As mentioned above, data security results in customer-centric benefits such as building reputation and digital trust and helps pave the way for competitive differentiators.

Closing internal vulnerabilities takes time, resources and expertise and is now part of the cost of doing business. But there are benefits with a solid return on investment. A recent Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study, for example, revealed that a typical enterprise-level organization can expect a seven-month payback period and slash $2.7M off their bottom line by employing our flexible OneWorld encryption solution. Get the full Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study of OneWorld now.

With so much at risk, isn’t it time to shore up your vulnerabilities?

At Echoworx, encryption is all we do. Our OneWorld encryption platform and cloud security services are a natural extension to existing security programs and offer a wide range of flexible options for secure message delivery. You can learn more about the ROI of Echoworx OneWorld encryption here.

By: Randy Yu, Senior Manager Technical Operations & Support, Echoworx

07 Jun 2019
Customer Experience, Information Security Kevin Foxton 0 comment

Holy Ship! Why Digital Transformation is Taking the Shipping Industry by Storm

In Medieval Italy, sea merchants invented the bill of lading to confirm receipt of all goods in a shipment. Hundreds of years later, many international shipping firms still rely on paper bills of lading for this same purpose. But paper-based transactions are falling out of favour in shipping, especially with shipping and logistics start-ups coming onto the scene as digital natives. Today, we want to talk about why digital transformation is taking the shipping industry by storm and the risk and rewards that come with it.

 

Four reasons the shipping industry is ripe for digital transformation

 

  1. Paper-based processes are slow – From bills of lading and paying at-sea employees to ship certificates required by the International Maritime Organization, running ships as big as the Empire State Building on paper processes just isn’t efficient. According to a recent article by The Economist, Maersk found that processing one shipment of avocados from India to the Netherlands involved 200 communications across 30 parties! In an era when shipping companies support consumers’ same-day delivery expectations, it’s essential to save time in port and at sea. This means moving away from fax, paper and telephone communications and moving towards digital systems and processes.

 

  1. Industry 4.0 is transforming the supply chain – Industry 4.0—also known as the fourth industrial revolution—is bringing automation, data and the internet of things to the global supply chain. For this to work effectively, all players must be connected to the digital supply chain. As digitization becomes business as usual across the supply chain, shipping companies that can’t connect to this global infrastructure will be left behind.

 

  1. There’s increasing pressure on profit margins – Low vessel utilization rates continue to put financial strain on shipping companies. Implementing digitized operations reduce costs by optimizing shipping capacity and routes.

 

  1. Digital trade-finance platforms are growing – Governments, banks and insurers are working together to create digital trade-finance platforms to digitize trade and financing activities for importers and exporters. This will lower costs and reduce risk of double financing and fraud. Greater adoption of digital trade finance platforms—such as Marco Polo and we.trade—puts pressure on shipping companies to go digital.

 

Cybersecurity risk in the shipping industry

 

In 2017, the UK shipping company, Clarkson PLC, fell victim to a massive cyberattack orchestrated through a single compromised user account, which provided access for hackers to a vast trove of sensitive customer details. It goes without saying that with increased digitization comes the increased risk of cybersecurity attacks, data breaches and insider threats. Instead of shying away from digital transformation, shipping companies must simply embrace the cybersecurity risk management and staff education that comes with it. It’s also essential to get the help they need to integrate secure digital processes, communications and a user-friendly encryption solution into their businesses.

 

The rewards of digital transformation in the shipping industry

 

Undergoing digital transformation in shipping reduces errors, improves customer satisfaction and trust through increased logistics transparency, speeds up formerly manual processes and increases connectivity for crew and off-ship asset management personnel. Of course, we strongly recommend building privacy by design into any digital transformation projects, including a flexible encryption solution that protects all ship to shore communications (and vice versa).

And while there are costs associated with digital transformation, enterprise-level organizations can recoup some of these costs with a proven encryption solution. For example, a recent Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study, revealed that a typical enterprise-level organization using Echoworx’s OneWorld encryption platform can expect an ROI of 155 per cent—with upwards of $2.7M in cost-mitigating benefits. This same study showed that using the OneWorld platform to replace on-premises legacy encryption solutions meant organizations could save the full software cost of previous solutions and avoid other legacy-related costs for a three-year savings of $793K.

Get the full Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study of OneWorld now.

With encryption as part of your digital transformation project, you can also assure your customers that their goods and containers have more protection than a 15th century Venetian piece of paper can offer.

At Echoworx, encryption is all we do. Our OneWorld encryption platform and cloud security services are a natural extension to existing security programs and offer a wide range of flexible options for secure message delivery. You can learn more about the ROI of Echoworx OneWorld encryption here.

By: Kevin Foxton, Technical Operations and Security Team Lead, Echoworx

05 Jun 2019
Customer Experience, Information Security Michael Roberts 0 comment

Securing Silos: The Case for an Omnichannel Approach to Digital Government

What if government worked like a business? What if a bureaucrat in one department could communicate seamlessly and securely with a politician in another?  What if departments could work collaboratively on procuring contracts?

When a government embraces a digital first strategy, effective secure communications serve an important function for their system to operate in a streamlined fashion. From frontline citizen-facing tasks, like sending a prescription or a temporary driver’s license, to more complex internal tasks, such as the procurement of a new multi-million-dollar research vessel, the need for flexible, frictionless and secure lines of communication exist at almost every level.

1) Omnichannel is about collaboration

In marketing, an omnichannel approach to sales implies a seamless shopping experience regardless of where a customer is located or what a customer is looking at. For government, an omnichannel experience implies a barrierless collaborative environment between all departments, all ministries and all levels within. In other words: a digital government, which aims to streamline all services, should be striving for an omnichannel environment.

2) Encryption needs to be part of the conversation

From the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to regional privacy laws in the US, like California’s AB375, privacy continues to be a major driver of policy surrounding all-things-digital. So when it comes to streamlining communications between ministries, the public, third-party vendors, lobby groups or other external organizations, messages containing sensitive personal data need to be secured with airtight encryption to help mitigate the risk of headline-grabbing data breaches.

3) Encryption should enable a digital government – not hinder it

In the private sector, encryption is becoming a competitive differentiator – with customers preferring organizations who value their personal data. This aspect of a customer-first mantra should be no different for digital government. In addition to offering a frictionless encryption experience, both for internal and external users, an effective encryption tool needs to be flexible enough to suit every government use case – from complex government procurement orders to something as simple as a doctor sending a prescription to a patient.

Check out how these enterprise-level organizations are leveraging our OneWorld encryption platform.

4) Good encryption should pay for itself

Since they are bankrolled by the very people they serve, governments need to justify every dollar (and penny) spent. So adopting a robust flexible encryption solution with all the trimmings is usually not top-of-mind in terms of how to allocate their budgets. But, although an effective encryption platform can be expensive, the cost-mitigating benefits should outweigh the overhead.

Take Echoworx’s OneWorld encryption platform, for example. According to a recent Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study conducted by Forrester Research, implementers of OneWorld can experience a payback period of less than seven months – in addition to both a return-on-investment (ROI) of 155 per cent and upwards of $2.7M in cost-mitigating benefits.

See the full TEI study by Forrester Research here.

Digital is better. Period.

While initial worries might include questions regarding accessibility for those members of the public not comfortable with digital correspondence, or perhaps more abstract questions regarding security, at the end of the day, citizens of any digital government soon appreciate the benefits of encrypted communications over snail mail. The ease of access offered by the instantaneous nature of digital messages, paired with an excellent user experience and secured by airtight algorithms is hard to argue against.

See if Echoworx is right for your government.

By Michael Roberts, VP Technology, Echoworx

04 Jun 2019
Cybersecurity, Information Security Nicholas Sawarna 0 comment

Encryption Mosaic: The New Diverse World of Secure Communications

Dial back the clock several million years and you find a crowded ocean of creatures surrounding lush green lands devoid of any vertebrate activity. Then one fish walked out of the sea and changed our terrestrial course forever. But did this ambitious fish have revolutionary intent? Certainly not – instead focusing on more immediate needs of food and new territory.

The same can be said about contemporary demands for secure digital communications. While digital communications enable transcendence from the world of paper mail, making the sending and receiving of information instantaneous, they inadvertently make our most-precious personal details more exposed and more open. And, with no way to turn back the clock, the case for encryption protection of sensitive information grows – and evolves.

But, as more and more industries migrate online, we are beginning to see that this brave new digital world is not one-size-fits-all – especially when it comes to secure digital communications. From different customers to different jurisdictional regulations protecting them, an encryption solution needs to be as flexible as the diverse array of organizations it serves.

Here are key points to consider in determining the factors affecting secure communications, why needs are so diverse and where exactly you might start placing your organization in the encryption mosaic:

1) Regulatory fines with sharp-teeth

Where an organization is located can influence how much they are expected to protect their data. In Denmark, for example, encryption is now mandatory for all communications containing the personal data of Danish citizens under its jurisdiction, according to its own interpretation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) affecting EU country members. Failure to comply with the GDPR, and other similar regulatory bodies or laws, like Canada’s recently-updated Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), for example, can lead to devastating fines and even more devasting brand damage.

Echoworx recognizes that not all countries protect the personal data and the privacy of their citizens the same. To help prevent prying bureaucratic eyes or to avoid non-compliance with jurisdictional regulations, Echoworx’s cloud-based encryption solutions are available on AWS Cloud in 13 countries. We also have SOC2 and ICO-certified data centres in the US, UK, Germany, Ireland, Mexico and Canada, ensuring all sensitive data stays close to home.

2) Different industries – different business cases

While organizations operating in the banks, financial services and insurance (BFSI) realm were the first wholesale adopters of encrypted communications, the technology is exponentially permeating through to other industries. According to a recent Ponemon study, for example, manufacturing and services organizations are beginning to crack into the encryption market – accounting for 12 and 11 per cent respectively.

And, as new industries begin to implement encrypted secure communications, so does demand rise for a flexible encryption solution to adapt to different business use cases. At Echoworx, for example, we offer a cloud-based scalable encryption solution featuring multiple secure user-friendly delivery methods to fit any business process.

Learn more about the different ways you can send secure information with Echoworx.

3) Users are changing

From mobile banking to Generation Z, how users send information and what exactly they are willing to send is changing at a rapid clip. Today’s users are tech-savvy and quick to provide personal details but even quicker to move on if an organization mishandles their data. They demand instantaneous communication and a streamlined user experience with organizations they work with. To avoid going the way of the dodo bird, you need to go above and beyond to make sure they come first – all while ensuring that their sensitive personal data is protected.

With Echoworx, you can tailor every aspect of your encryption experience to put your customers first – from the way they access a secure message to something as simple as the ability to brand. And, to further avoid any negating situations affecting user experience, Echoworx offers services in 22 languages for all our flexible delivery methods – ensuring nothing is lost in translation.

Explore these different delivery methods here.

4) Encryption isn’t just an IT issue anymore

From headline-grabbing data breaches to something as simple as customer experience, encryption is no longer a backroom IT issue – it’s a business issue. But implementing an encryption program isn’t as simple as adopting a solution and flipping a switch. There needs to be a universal internal change of culture at most organizations. For example, while 50 per cent of CEOs are concerned most about possible detrimental impacts to user experience when adopting a security solution, 88 per cent of IT professionals view encryption as costly, difficult and a constraint on business productivity.

Echoworx works with companies to ensure encryption solutions are as non-intrusive and as streamlined as possible – from deployment to the end user. In our capacity as a third-party encryption provider, we support our clients, reducing the additional strain of user help queries, and, with nearly two-decades’ worth experience in the encryption market, we can adapt to any business case.

Learn more about working with Echoworx.

By Nicholas Sawarna, Sr. Content Marketing Specialist, Echoworx

—

Sources:

  • Ponemon Global Encryption Trends Study – April 2018
29 May 2019
Secure Digital Communications for a Digital First Government
Customer Experience, Information Security Christian Peel 0 comment

Secure Digital Communications for a Digital First Government

In addition to caring for its citizens, a good government communicates with and listens to its citizens’ questions, concerns and comments. But, in today’s digital world, where private sector corporations are lightyears ahead, a government cannot effectively communicate with constituents via snail mail. From the internal costs associated with printing and stuffing envelopes to the disappointment of a constituent receiving a plain white envelope stuffed in their mailbox well after the fact – requiring postage for return correspondence – snail mail just isn’t good enough.

But there’s more to sending a digital communication then clicking ‘Send.’

Here are some questions to consider when sending a secure communication to a constituent:

  1. Is the data sensitive?

As a rule, most government communications being pushed to a constituent are going to contain personal information one way or another. And, from identifying medical information to something as simple as an address, a sender and their ministry or department can be on the hook for massive fines if this information is lost, breached or misplaced.

The Ministry of Natural resources in Canada, for example, might be responsible for communicating information regarding fracking to constituents living in an area which is licensed to be drilled for natural gas. Instead of initiating a massive snail main campaign, requiring postage, envelope stuffers, among other factors, the Ministry might opt for a bulk mail digital communication pushed direct to concerned constituent mailboxes. In order to avoid fines associated with Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the Canadian equivalent of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), these communications need to be protected.

The Secure Bulk Mail (SBM) delivery method, a feature of the Echoworx OneWorld encryption solution, is perfect for situations as outlined above. In addition to offering a personalized and user-friendly message environment for mass lists of recipients, SBM protects communications with encryption complete with tracking metrics – so a sender can ensure their message safely reached its intended destination.

Learn more about Secure Bulk Mail.

 

  1. Who is receiving an encrypted message?

Like customers of a large enterprise-level corporation, a government serves a whole diverse population of different organizations, corporations, lobbyists and citizens. But, unlike large corporations, a government is a coagulation of many different moving parts – some with little to nothing in common. Any encryption solution employed by a digital first government needs to be flexible and accommodating to all situations – from a doctor sending a patient file to another hospital to a bureaucrat procuring a contract from a vendor.

While sending an encrypted message should not be a complicated task, one does not simply ‘encrypt’ a message. In addition to common secure channels, like TLS, any modern-day encryption platform will offer multiple encryption delivery options to ensure a message can be received and is not sent in the clear – without protection.

But, in today’s customer-centric world, encryption is as much about user experience as it is security. Depending on who is on the receiving end of a message, or whether the message is a part of something more collaborative in nature, a sender needs to make sure their message doesn’t look like spam. Secure messages need to be consistent in look-and-feel and device-agnostic to provide an excellent user experience.

See how large organizations, like government, are leveraging encryption.

 

  1. Do international privacy regulations apply to government?

From the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which protects the privacy of citizens of EU member countries, to Australia’s controversial government-mandated backdoors, in the name of national security, there is a whole patchwork of international privacy laws to be aware of outlining how data can be collected, what data can be collected and for what purpose. As a rule, it is generally recommended to abide by more extreme privacy regulations, like Denmark’s mandatory encryption rules, for example, to avoid headline-grabbing fines for mishandling data.

The best way to ensure data being sent by a government abides by privacy regulations, whether its own or those applicable to citizens covered under international laws, is to protect data at all points in transit. While encryption may be enough to satisfy these regulations, additional safeguards are necessary to prevent data from making compromising touchpoints in countries with more relaxed privacy rules.

With data centres in Canada, the US, Mexico, Ireland, the UK and Germany and operating in 30 countries around the world and counting, Echoworx is fully prepared to ensure private data stays private and doesn’t make any unwanted stops along the way – from sender to recipient.

Learn more about Echoworx’s secure safeguards.

 

  1. What language do constituents speak?

Multi-lingual service options are musts for many governments and their respective ministries and departments around the world. These needs are no different when it comes to sending secure communications. In addition to alleviating confusion for recipients, having a flexible encryption platform capable of supporting multiple languages is just good customer service.

For better, more-inclusive, secure communication, the OneWorld encryption platform supports 22 languages and the list is continually growing. This ensures messages are available in all official languages of an electorate and that nothing is lost in translation.

Learn more about the customizable branding options of OneWorld – including languages.

 

  1. When should a government ask for help?

Unlike nimble tech start-ups, or even seasoned financial services organizations, a government can be slow to move and quick to over-acquire. In addition to the huge cost-mitigating factors of dedicating IT specialists and support staff to run and maintain an in-house encryption operation, working with a third-party encryption provider, like Echoworx, can help save massive amounts of cash through eliminating cumbersome paper processes – leaving more money to be allocated for more important projects.

Learn more about the cost-mitigating benefits of Echworx’s OneWorld encryption platform in a recent Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study conducted by Forrester Research.

By: Christian Peel, VP Engineering at Echoworx

 

21 May 2019
The challenges of a digital government
Compliance, Information Security Nicholas Sawarna 0 comment

The Wireless Government: Why a Digital Government is a Better Government

From large conglomeratic banking institutions to massive global shipping firms, the world’s ‘upload to all-things-digital’ continues at breakneck pace. And so does the patchwork list of regional, national and even international privacy regulations dictating who can and how to do business in this brave new digital world continue to grow. But are governments at-risk of slipping behind the very regulations they aim to impose on their business communities?

As American poet Walt Whitman lamented over a century ago: “That powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” The same can be said for those who run legacy government infrastructure to (finally) take their processes into the 21st Century. And, as our planet continues its perpetual rotations around the sun, the digital world might continue to grow – with or without them.

So how does a government upload their tangle of ministries, services and legislature into a wireless world?

Making digital a priority

From large digital initiatives, like the UK National Health Service (NHS)’s blanket ban of fax machines, announced in early-2019, which affects 1.2 million people, to even more ambitious total uploads of government services, like the Government of Ontario’s digital first strategy, outlined in the Canadian province’s 2019 Budget, governments are beginning to take note of the importance of digital communication. Not only is going digital environmentally friendly, but the resulting systems are streamlined, instantaneous and competitive.

And, with digital adoption, comes the need to communicate securely. From complex back-and-forth procurement agreements with vendors to sensitive citizen services, like sending health records between hospitals, encryption plays an important role at every level of a digital government. At Echoworx, we facilitate seamless transitions from cumbersome paper communications to paperless solutions.

Here’s how enterprise organizations are uploading legacy systems to the cloud.

The challenges of a digital government

Unlike the nimble tech start-ups we have become used to, most governments are the product of decades – even centuries – of incoming politicians, revolutions, legislature and mountains of paperwork carefully wrapped in layers of red tape. In other words, they are hardly the right environment for the fast-moving sweeping changes necessary for digital innovation. Combined with a contemporary customer-centric digital business model, which balances an excellent user experience with airtight secure data-protecting algorithms, and you have a true bureaucratic headache on your hands.

Working with third-party providers, like Echoworx, can help mitigate the workload of uploading an existing paper-based system online. From helping banks send millions of e-statements per day to something as simple as adding branding and language options to a secure communication, for examples, third-party providers are experts at what they do and offer seamless access to existing digital infrastructure.

Here are some advantages of third-party email security systems.

A new type of government

When a customer enters a coffee shop, they are prompted to join a queue to either place an order with a smiling barista or pick up an order they commanded via a mobile device. While in line, this customer is presented with an array of colour, branding and, most important, impulse buys or add-ons shown as tantalizing options through display case glass – just out of reach.

This coffeeshop model of greeting, presenting and selling to customers is a form of client stewardship beginning to permeate into banks, financial services and even insurance organizations. The cold professionalism of yesteryear is rapidly being replaced by a more fun, inviting and open model which puts the customer at ease and, most importantly, puts them first.

For government services, the goal needs to be the same – offering seamless digital services which add a warm pulse to sometimes cold mundane processes. And this inviting environment starts with opting out of soulless white envelopes for the more engaging and instantaneous world of encrypted digital communications.

Take the mass encrypted messaging capabilities of Echoworx OneWorld, for example. Using OneWorld’s ‘Secure Bulk Mail’ delivery option, senders can deliver encrypted, branded and personalized communications to massive lists of recipients at the click of a mouse. In addition to leveraging the monetary savings of going paperless, Secure Bulk Mail offers senders options to track the status of their messages – which is especially important to government departments and ministries who need to send out mass messages to concerned or affected citizens.

See Echoworx’s full array of secure flexible delivery methods.

Going digital keeps the treasury happy

Like in the business world, a government is always keeping an eye on its bottom line. But, while a business may experience ups and downs, answering to its board or shareholders, a government ultimately answers to its citizens – who vote during elections. In addition to streamlining services and enabling simpler secure dialogue with constituents, a digital government also has additional cost-mitigating factors to consider.

For example, according to recent Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study conducted by Forrester Research, the average enterprise-level organization, such as a government, can expect cost-mitigating benefits valued at up to $2.7M. And, given an average $1 cost-per-page associated with sending communications via traditional snail mail, a government has the potential to save approximately $1.5M over a three-year period.

But the best part? With an average payback period of about seven months, a government can adopt OneWorld, a fully flexible, user-friendly and robust enterprise-level encryption solution and get their money back before election time!

See the full TEI study of OneWorld by Forrester Research here.

By Nicholas Sawarna, Sr. Content Marketing Specialist, Echoworx

10 May 2019
consistent encryption experience
Customer Experience Derek Christiansen 0 comment

The Importance of a Consistent Encryption Experience

Producing real change isn’t based on one-time occasional actions, but is rather the product of careful consistent processes. This mantra can be applied to our digital world, where the adoption of new technologies only truly takes hold when people actually use them – particularly when it comes to cybersecurity solutions.

The cybersecurity benefits that come with encryption can only be realized when the encryption experience is consistent—for your employees, your customers and your partners. This article covers why encryption consistency is difficult, a natural extension approach to encryption and how consistency enhances the customer experience.

Why it is difficult to offer a consistent, enterprise-grade user experience?

In many enterprise-level organizations, employees are scattered across the globe, working from anywhere at any time and with any device.

The realities of today’s digital workplace include:

  • Mobile employees, who expect to work from anywhere via any device
  • Evolving security demands of clients, partners and vendors
  • Zero tolerance policies for business risk and disruption
  • Controlling data after it leaves the organization, while ensuring it only reaches intended recipients
  • Cybersecurity threats – both of internal and external origin
  • International privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which dictate business processes.

 

At any given time, organizations have employees accessing secure information via desktop and mobile devices, on or off the company network. Even the reality of business travelers accessing secure documents—while on the road, without reliable access to the Internet —presents an encryption problem.

This new digital workplace makes it difficult to implement a consistent encryption experience because there are many user types, each with different needs. A one-size-fits-all solution may sound divine but is unlikely to provide a consistent experience when offered to real customers in real world situations.

How a natural extension approach increases encryption consistency

Security administrators must balance user-experience with airtight encryption algorithms and—much like a tightrope walker—when these features are unbalanced, the risk of danger increases exponentially.

While an out-of-the-box encryption solution might seem simple, it doesn’t always provide the right balance of security and usability. An inconsistent user experience can lead to frustration and open the door to less secure workarounds. For example, a recent Echoworx survey found that only 40 per cent of organizations that have encryption capabilities use them across the business.

Pairing your current solution with a suitable encryption extension gives you access to innovative enhancements that boost adoption rates and consistency.

Look for a natural encryption extension that:

  • Has a flexible platform that can quickly integrate and adapt to any environment.
  • Provides policy-based support of multiple brands and languages, based on organization, sender and recipient attributes.
  • Gives a user-friendly experience which promotes adoption for senders and recipients.
  • Is designed for high volume encryption with secure bulk messaging capabilities—to meet enterprise-level demands.
  • Offers a variety of secure delivery options, including fallback options, so that all messages are protected.
  • Delivers a return on investment. For example, a recent Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study, found that a typical enterprise-level organization using Echoworx’s OneWorld encryption platform can expect an ROI of 155 per cent—with upwards of $2.7M in cost-mitigating benefits.

 

How consistent encryption enhances the customer experience

Offering a consistent user experience is better for your customer, wherever they are. For example, an organization with offices around the world can use Echoworx’s OneWorld encryption platform to deliver a consistent brand, domain and user experience across all secure communications, regardless of the sender and recipient locations.

You may wonder how this works. The platform supports 22 languages and uses organizational attributes to personalize and dynamically brand outgoing encrypted messages by brand, division or location. These rules are set up during implementation and based on business use cases.

If you take advantage of branding and language preferences, your clients will consistently see that the secure message originated from a reputable source — your organization—and that it isn’t spam. This approach builds trust with customers and while trust may be easy to gain in the digital world, it’s even easier to lose. Encryption is so intertwined with client trust, satisfaction and retention, it’s now a business necessity.

But it’s a business necessity that pays for itself.

The Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study also found that a typical enterprise-level organization using Echoworx’s OneWorld encryption platform can achieve a payback period of seven months, eliminate $67K from the cost of custom email domain branding and slash costs of on-premise legacy encryption by $793K over a three-year period.

At Echoworx, encryption is all we do, and we do it consistently. Our OneWorld encryption platform and cloud security services are a natural extension to existing security programs and offer a wide range of flexible options for secure message delivery. You can learn more about the ROI of Echoworx OneWorld encryption here.

By Derek Christiansen, Engagement Manager, Echoworx

08 May 2019
Encryption Isn’t Just for Financial Services
Information Security Nicholas Sawarna 0 comment

No End in Sight: Encryption Isn’t Just for Financial Services Anymore

From bank statements to something as simple as applying for a new credit card, discretion of sensitive personal data is an expected feature at any reputable bank, financial service or insurance (BFSI) institution. So it’s a no-brainer why, as more BFSI organizations move to a full digital environment, they continue to prioritize data protection measures – like encryption. But, while these organizations may be the overwhelming past and present juggernauts of secure communications, BFSI organizations by no means represent the sole future of this growing necessity in our digital world – a digital world where security spending is forecasted to exceed $124B in 2019 alone.

So how exactly is the realm of secure communications changing? It’s becoming a keystone of any customer-centric business plan – and, in some cases, even mandatory – regardless of industry.

Encryption no longer an add-on

As early adopters of encryption, BFSI organizations marketed their secure document delivery systems as ‘environmental-friendly’ or ‘postage-saving,’ with more onus put on the customer as an optional add-on. But in addition to streamlined, tree-saving digital features, a more substantial societal embrace of digital delivery methods has given rise to new regulations with teeth paired with expectations that sensitive personal data is being protected. Consequently, nearly 50 per cent of encryption adopters today, according to Echoworx data, state compliance as a primary reason for implementing an encryption strategy.

Encryption for all!

While BFSI organizations continue to be the more-prominent adopters of encryption, accounting for a healthy 15 per cent of respondents in a recent Ponemon study, other industries are beginning to take note. In fact, according to the same report, manufacturing and services organizations are not far behind – accounting for 12 and 11 per cent respectively.

This changing trend isn’t a trend at all – but rather an evolution of how we protect data. As a tool of customer stewardship, encryption is a way for all industries to demonstrate that they value and care about the personal data of their patrons. As a mutually beneficial relationship, the resulting digital customer trust encourages consumers to continue conducting business while enabling an organization to effectively collect adequate amounts of data without compromising their integrity – resulting in better customer service.

Echoworx recognizes that the world of encryption is becoming more three-dimensional and varied in terms of its business use cases. In order to accommodate the mosaic of industries set to explode into the encryption market, we offer a wide array of flexible, scalable and user-friendly encryption solutions to streamline any business process.

See some real-world encryption use cases here.

Changing customers, changing views on privacy

From the introduction of encryption to popular instant messaging app WhatsApp in 2016 to headline grabbing violations of international privacy regulations, like the massive €400K fine issued to Uber France for their fumbling of sensitive personal data, consumers are now more aware of and concerned for protection of their personal data.

And yet they continue to provide their most precious digital details with little prompting – less prompting than needed for them to disclose their address to a first date, according to Echoworx data. But, if digital customers are easy to get, they are even easier to lose after a data breach and impossible to get back. So why take chances with their data?

According to a recent PwC report, strong levels of digital customer trust are a keystone of any customer service plan. In terms of sharing data, for example, 88 per cent customers who trust an organization are more likely to provide accurate, reliable and consistent personal data. This, in turn, provides more information with which an organization might fine-tine their customer service program.

At Echoworx, we know that offering a streamlined encryption experience is not only good for customer experience – it helps bolster the levels of digital trust needed to build effective business relationships. As more industries go online and digital, this trend is set to occupy a more prominent role in most business use cases.

Learn more about customer experience, digital trust and encryption.

New international regulations demand encryption

By now we know the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the EU is spurring governments to take matters of data privacy seriously. But did you know that EU citizens are protected by the GDPR regardless of where they live or work? Did you know that Danish interpretations of the GDPR mean encryption is now mandatory for all business in Denmark? Did you know that the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is eliminating fax machines completely?

Like it or not, organizations looking to compete internationally are going to have to adopt proactive data protection policies, like encryption, into every process. At Echoworx, we realize this can be complicated for massive international organizations sending out millions of sensitive messages a year. That’s why we have data centres located in six countries – including locations in the EU zones.

And it’s not just about the EU!

The encryption forecast is cloudy

While legacy on-premise encryption solutions might continue to dominate the market to the end of the decade, cloud-based encryption continues to grow. In fact, according to a recent Ponemon study, encryption in public cloud services grew over 10 per cent in 2017 – the highest year-over-year growth of any encryption use case observed in the report. We expect this trend to continue and grow stronger.

At Echoworx, our scalable and flexible encryption solutions and worldwide presence are prepared for this cloudy new world. Our team of experts can help you migrate your on-premises encryption infrastructure to the cloud without any business disruption.

In addition to gaining the benefits of multiple delivery methods, branding and language options and other natural extensions to your existing system, there are additional cost mitigating benefits of working with Echoworx in the cloud. According to a recent Total Economic Impact™ study of Echoworx’s OneWorld encryption platform conducted by Forrester Research, for example, additional value is unlocked by working with us as a third- party provider – including cutting down on overhead like support time and additional resources required to run encryption infrastructure in-house.

Learn more about the Forrester TEI study of OneWorld here.

Encryption is bigger than finance!

Encryption is no longer just about saving paper on bank statements – it is becoming a part of everyday conversation. From international privacy regulations to customer service to actual customer expectations, encryption is no longer an option – regardless of industry. As we continue our march toward a brave new digital world, you want to make sure your organization doesn’t fall by the wayside. Be prepared – be proactive – talk to us today.

By Nicholas Sawarna, Sr. Content Marketing Specialist, Echoworx

———

Sources:

  • Gartner Information Security Forecast – August 2018
  • Ponemon Global Encryption Trends Study – April 2018
  • PwC Report – Securing customer trust
03 May 2019
how to make a business case for encryption
Cybersecurity, Information Security Beverly Barrett 0 comment

How to Make a Business Case for Encryption

Worldwide, more than 290 billion emails are sent every day. In enterprise-level organizations, digital communication is a competitive advantage over snail mail because it’s faster, cheaper and easier to deploy. But cost savings can disappear the instant an organization experiences a data or privacy breach, which is all too common. In 2018, 4.8 billion records were stolen during breaches—that’s more than 9,000 per minute—and less than three per cent of those records were encrypted.

Today, we’ll do a quick review of two reasons email encryption is business-critical and what to look for in an encryption provider if your organization would like to minimize risks and costs associated with keeping email secure.

Why email encryption is critical in business: the high cost of losing trust

If your organization collects, manages and disperses personal information, it’s essential to deploy user-friendly encryption to secure that data as it flows through email. Of course, it’s the right thing to do, but it’s also what customers want and expect. For example, 87 per cent of CEOs invest in cybersecurity specifically to build customer trust—because once you lose trust, you lose the customer. When customer trust and satisfaction is tied into data security, it’s easy to see how email encryption no longer fits into the nice-to-have category. It’s now essential.

Why email encryption is critical in business: compliance & avoiding fines

Implementing an encryption solution also helps you keep government hands—mandated by legislation—out of your pockets.

If your organization doesn’t protect data from being intercepted on route, the fines can be substantial. Just one year in after launch of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU, for example, and we are already seeing massive fines – like the €50M fine Google was ordered to pay at the beginning of 2018 for GDPR violations.

In Canada, under the newly-updated Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), it’s now mandatory to report data breaches, with non-compliance fines going as high as $100,000.

With privacy legislation expanding—California, New York and even Qatar, among many others, have created their own guidelines—organizations can no longer afford to ignore email encryption for private data. Privacy legislation now has teeth and the fines are steep.

There’s no question that taking care of your business means encryption. The next thing to do is work with an encryption provider who understands your needs and addresses them effectively.

Finding an encryption provider that works for you

Global information security spending, as a whole, is set to exceed $124B in 2019, according to a recent Gartner report —which means your organization has a lot of choice when it comes to encryption solutions. This choice is good but can also lead to overwhelm and poor decisions. For example, if an organization has an encryption solution in place, but it’s not widely used, it can mean they didn’t choose an encryption provider that could meet their needs and guide them through the process. We don’t want that to happen to you, so we put together a list of things to look for in an email encryption provider.

Seven things to look for in an enterprise-level encryption provider:

  1. Proven track record – Ask how long the provider has been working in encryption. At Echoworx, for example, we understand the risks of email management because we’ve been providing encryption solutions for almost two decades.
  2. Solutions that go beyond out-of-the-box encryption – While out-of-the-box encryption is much better than zero encryption, look for a provider that can counsel you on solutions based on your needs. Many enterprise-level organizations require flexible delivery and policy-based encryption options—which go beyond the box.
  3. Cloud solutions that reduce overhead – Sending encrypted messages simply costs more when you run a legacy on-premise encryption solution. Costs include hardware and physical on-premise servers and staff to run them. Look for a third-party encryption provider that allows you to upload your secure communications to the cloud, offload support queries, gain access to encryption experts, save money and put less burden on your IT resources.
  4. Data centres around the world – Worldwide data centres allow users to deploy communications within their jurisdictions and within regulatory compliance. For example, at Echoworx, we have data centres in six countries: Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico and the United States. This helps cut costs, maintain compliance and cuts down on deployment time.
  5. Reputation management – Every time a piece of sensitive information leaves an organization’s digital perimeter, it puts a company’s reputation at-risk. An encryption provider should understand this risk and offer solutions like full brand alignment in multiple languages to support a seamless end-user experience.
  6. Systems that support dynamic scaling – Can your provider’s encryption solution scale dynamically as email demand on the system fluctuates from day to day or even hour to hour—and accommodate increased demand without delay? Is your system available in AWS Cloud in 13 countries?
  7. Vetted partners for peace of mind – Do you trust your provider to handle your data securely and responsibly? At Echoworx, we subject our business to regular audits. We are proud to be: SOC2 Certified, Web Trust Certified, a Microsoft Root Certificate Member and an Apple Root Certificate Member.

One last thing to look for in an encryption provider: a track record of positive return on investment (ROI).

A recent Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study, for example, revealed that a typical enterprise-level organization using Echoworx’s OneWorld encryption platform can expect an ROI of 155 per cent—with upwards of $2.7M in cost-mitigating benefits. This same study showed that using OneWorld’s self-service support options—like automatic password resets—increases call centre productivity, removes the need for additional overhead and can save enterprise-level organizations almost $320K over three years.

Get the full Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study of OneWorld now.

As you can see, the cost of unencrypted email communications is high and the risk too great. Isn’t it time you found a trusted encryption provider that can meet the needs of your business and customers?

By: Beverly Barrett, Director, Channel Management, Echoworx

—–

sources:

24 Apr 2019
Five ways to minimize the risk of insider threats
Cybersecurity Brian Au 0 comment

Insider Cyber Threats? Closer to Home than You Think!

For enterprise-level organizations, it’s no longer enough to protect data and systems from nefarious external agents. Organizations must also implement defensive measures to protect themselves from something much closer to home: insider threats.

Internal cyber attacks happen inadvertently or on purpose. We want to share the four types of insider threats and some defensive measures that help organizations reduce the risk of these threats.

Two types of accidental insider attacks

Instead of jumping into a zero-trust environment that’s so restrictive it hampers productivity and user-experience, remember that most of your employees and trusted partners do not have malicious intent. Inadvertent or unintended insider attacks happen because the insider is oblivious or negligent.

An oblivious attack is when someone with access to company information is compromised by an outside agent but doesn’t realize it. This can happen when someone leaves a company device unattended or uses unencrypted Wi-Fi on a company device.

A negligent attack is when someone bypasses a security protocol, often to speed up a work process or because of a lack of knowledge about the security protocol. When employees lack proper security training, they’re more vulnerable to phishing and spear phishing attempts.

Two types of intentional insider attacks

The two primary types of intentional insider attacks come from malicious and professional attackers.

A malicious attack comes from an insider who becomes disgruntled and goes rogue to get even with the company for a real or imagined offense. This could involve stealing data or sabotaging a company network or system.

A professional attack comes from an insider who is a career thief. This involves exploiting system vulnerabilities for profit.

External attacks through the inside

 While blunt force attacks remain a common threat at the gates of any firewall, there are also ways for malicious actors to attack your company through the inside. Called social engineering attacks, a hacker might impersonate someone at an organization via stolen credentials, stolen information or supply chain attack. A smart air conditioning unit, for example, might be connected to an organization network, creating a third-party backdoor vulnerability bypassing frontline defenses.

Five ways to minimize the risk of insider threats

With all these foxes in the hen house, organizations are wise to take a defensive approach to insider threats.

  1. Get the Board on board – Even in 2019, it’s common for boards to not ask about or understand cybersecurity. Rafael Narezzi, a prominent Cyber Security Strategist, suggests that everyone on the Board of Directors must “understand what [cybersecurity] is. Not in deep technical talk but the consequences for the business if they don’t act.” When the Board and senior leadership team understands the cost and consequences of cyber threats, there will be more support for cybersecurity initiatives.This lack of attention is more common than you’d probably guess. PwC’s Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2018 found that less than half of surveyed organizations had conducted a cybercrime risk assessment. This is despite cybercrime being one of the top three most reported frauds!

 

  1. Use an effective and user-friendly encryption solution – It’s imperative that organizational data is secured because so many insiders have access to it and sending that sensitive information to clients, vendors and partners is a regular part of doing business.Features to look for in an enterprise-level encryption solution include:
  • Automatic encryption policies that apply encryption under defined circumstances (such as when certain information or keywords appear in an email).
  • Multiple flexible delivery methods for different types of secure encrypted communications that allow the sender to control how a message is sent and whether to include features like a time limit.
  • Easy and frictionless user experience for employees and customers.With a frictionless user experience—for example, with the Echoworx One World encryption platform—employees are less likely to bypass security protocols because they’re built into regular workflows and don’t make security a burden for senders or recipients.In addition to reducing risks to insider threats, there are financial benefits to adopting a flexible, frictionless encryption solution. A recent Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study, for example, revealed that a typical enterprise-level organization can enjoy $2.7M in cost-mitigating benefits through employing our flexible OneWorld encryption solution.  Get the full Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study of OneWorld now.
  1. Educate staff on cybersecurity – Even though employees know why they shouldn’t open attachments and click links from strange emails or use “p@ssw0rd” as a password, they’re still vulnerable to attacks because cybercrime is increasingly sophisticated. To change that, make sure all employees take part in regular and effective cybersecurity training that helps them understand why it’s important, how to implement security measures at work and how to spot sophisticated phishing and spear phishing scams.Training can include tests and tricks. A good trick involves sending a fake phishing attempt to staff to reinforce real-world lessons from the cybersecurity training.
  1. Build security into all products and processes from the start – Train developer teams to create products that are secure by design. Frédéric Virmont, a cybersecurity industry expert, says, “Security is like quality; it must be from the beginning to the end of the life cycle. For developers, now we have tools where they can code and check security along the way. If you wait until the end of the product, it’s too late. Once the house is built, it’s too late to add emergency exits.”This idea includes permissions architecture. A non-secure design gives all users access to more data than necessary. To be security minded, create a permissions architecture that gives access based on needs and roles. For example, the chief marketing officer wouldn’t have the same permissions as customer service agents.
  2. Make cybersecurity the path of least resistance for all users – Like it or not, we do what’s easy. For organizations, this means that overly-complex data security protocols hamper adoption. Because cybersecurity methods only work when staff and customers use them, user-experience must always be considered and prioritized.Going back to the encryption example above, we’ve found that a lot of internal users are reluctant to send encrypted emails because they don’t know how to encrypt them or don’t like the spammy look for their recipient. These are two unnecessary barriers that get in the way of frictionless security and set the stage perfectly for negligent insider attacks.

Insider threats are real and a recent PwC report in the US found that 32 per cent of respondents consider insider threats costlier and more damaging than external incidents.

By taking a security approach that involves a frictionless encryption solution, security by design (and the path of least resistance) and effective education for staff and the Board of Directors, your organization can minimize risks associated with malicious and unintentional insider attacks.

Given all of the above, is why at Echoworx, encryption is all we do. Our OneWorld encryption platform and cloud security services are a natural extension to existing security programs and offers a wide range of flexible options for secure message delivery. You can learn more about the benefits of Echoworx OneWorld encryption here.

By: Brian Au, IT Specialist, Echoworx

sources:

https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/advisory/forensics/economic-crime-survey.html

21 Apr 2019
healthcare security
Customer Experience, Information Security Alex Loo 0 comment

Encryption in Healthcare? Improving the Prognosis of Data Security

Healthcare organizations collect, manage and distribute an enormous amount of medical and personal information and they’re constantly at the mercy of budget constraints and cuts, which leaves them vulnerable. On top of that, healthcare is the only industry where more breaches happen because of insider threats than outside malicious agents[i] and it’s tied for first place for the most breaches across all sectors.[ii]

In a nutshell, healthcare is in critical condition when it comes to cybersecurity.

To address this condition, enterprise-level healthcare organizations, hospitals and their third-party business associates can increase data security and reduce risks of breaches by implementing user-friendly and customer-centric encryption services.

Customer-centric encryption is so important in healthcare because many agencies are transforming from paper to digital records while dealing with preventable insider threats (often in the form of delivery errors). This means to get the most out of encryption, healthcare organizations must consider how easy it is for patients, employees and business associates to use and trust the encryption solution.

What customer-centric encryption looks like in healthcare

The customer experience differentiators that healthcare organizations should look for in an encryption solution include:

  • Integration of privacy by design features like definable policies to control which communications require encryption and how they are sent. This takes security decision-making out of the picture for busy healthcare administrators and ensures your organization stays compliant with regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
  • Multiple flexible delivery methods for different types of secure encrypted communications, including secure PDF (e.g., secure record delivery) and web portal access, TLS and encrypted attachments and support for S/MIME and PGP.
  • Easy and frictionless user experience for employees, patients and business associates. This is especially relevant in healthcare organizations that serve an aging population who aren’t as tech-savvy as the general population. The World Health Organization suggests, “primary health care must be accessible and friendly to persons of all ages.”[iii] We agree and believe this applies to accessing patient records too.
  • Secure bulk mail functionality that automates the process of emailing mass personalized documents securely. As the British National Health Service (NHS) can attest from its 2017 experience, losing 900,000 patient letters is no good for patient trust in their system.
  • Multiple brand and language options to give patients the peace of mind that comes with receiving secure messages from a trusted source.
  • Dedicated account support to help organizations understand how email encryption fits into their patient care and business models.

An encryption solution for healthcare organizations should be easy for employees to use. First, because making secure encryption the path of least resistance increases user adoption. And secondly, because data security breaches happen most frequently at the employee level in healthcare. For example, did you know that employees are increasingly exposed to malware hidden in Microsoft Office documents sent through email?[iv]

A matter of trust in healthcare

As we’ve seen in other industries like banking, trust is becoming a new currency and this equally applies  in healthcare because patient data is so personal. Healthcare patients expect that medical transactions—including booking an online appointment, communicating with a medical professional and having health records sent between institutions—are safe and secure, which builds trust. If patients don’t believe your healthcare organization can protect their data, they  lose faith and—when possible—they  leave. A recent Echoworx survey found that 80 per cent of customers consider leaving a brand after a data breach. With so many leaders concerned about organizational reputation—and in an increasingly competitive private healthcare landscape—can you afford an encryption solution that doesn’t give your employees, patients and business associates a frictionless user experience?

How healthcare organizations can achieve cost savings with encryption

In addition to supporting a patient-centred business model and reducing the risks of insider threats, there are financial benefits associated with adopting a flexible and frictionless encryption solution.

A recent Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study, for example, revealed that a typical enterprise-level organization using Echoworx’s OneWorld encryption platform can accelerate the adoption of digital document delivery, save $1 per paper document delivered digitally instead of through the postal system and accumulate a three-year cost savings of $1.5M.  This same study showed that adopting OneWorld’s self-service support options, like automatic password resets, increases call centre productivity, removes the need for additional overhead and can slash nearly $320K off the bottom line of an enterprise-level organization.

Read the full Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study of OneWorld now.

Encryption can save healthcare organizations money on process and system improvements. But that’s not all. Including encryption as part of an overall data security program also helps organizations avoid the cost of security breaches. For example, the average cost for a ransomware incident is $76,000 which sounds like a lot until you see that the average hacking breach costs $2.4M.[v]

With so much at stake in healthcare, isn’t it time to integrate a frictionless encryption solution into your healthcare organization?

This is why at Echoworx, encryption is all we do. Our OneWorld encryption platform and cloud security services are a natural extension to existing security programs and offers a wide range of flexible options for secure message delivery. You can learn more about the ROI of Echoworx OneWorld encryption here.

By Alex Loo, VP of Operations at Echoworx

————

[i] 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report, 11th edition (Verizon)

[ii] Cyber Security and Healthcare: An Evolving Understanding of Risk (Symantec)

[iii] https://www.who.int/ageing/primary_health_care/en/

[iv] 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report, 11th edition (Verizon)

[v] Cyber Security and Healthcare: An Evolving Understanding of Risk (Symantec)

03 Apr 2019
customer centric encryption
Customer Experience, Information Security Christian Peel 0 comment

Why Customer-Centric Encryption Matters in Financial Services

Before message encryption became mainstream with its incorporation into popular messaging platforms, like WhatsApp, and into deep-reaching, headline-grabbing international privacy regulations, like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the financial services industry could usually get away with using overly-complex data security options which were not user friendly. Customers simply didn’t know protecting their data could be seamless and practically invisible.

They know it now and expect customer-centric encryption solutions—especially from the financial services organizations that secure their most sensitive data.

Financial services firms shouldn’t need to choose between security and customer experience. If you look at encryption specs, you’ll notice that algorithms aren’t the primary differentiators of any secure email solution. Almost all contemporary security products feature 2048-bit RSA encryption, 256-bit AES encryption and SHA2 signatures.

The real differentiator is customer experience—how easy is it for customers and employees to use the encryption solution? And do they get the awesome customer experience they’ve come to expect?

Five ways encryption can secure customer-centric innovation

The customer experience differentiators that enterprise-level financial services organizations should look for in an encryption solution include:

  • Definable policies to control which communications require encryption and how they are sent.
  • Multiple flexible delivery methods for different types of secure encrypted communications.
  • Easy and frictionless user experience for employees and customers, no matter how tech-savvy they are (or aren’t).
  • Multiple brand and language options to support brand alignment and customer expectations and to give customers the peace of mind that comes with receiving secure messages from a trusted source.
  • Dedicated account support to help organizations understand how email encryption fits into their business model.

Customer experience is so important because it directly relates to trust—the new currency in banking. Your clients need to trust you with their most personal data and—like it or not—clunky user experiences erode their faith in your ability to protect their data. And when clients lose faith and no longer trust your brand, they will leave. A recent Echoworx survey found that 80 per cent of customers consider leaving a brand after a data breach. With so many CEOs concerned about company reputation, it doesn’t make sense to settle for an encryption solution that can’t support an awesome customer experience—the risk to the brand is just too high.

In addition to benefitting your customer-centric business model, there are added monetary benefits to adopting a flexible frictionless encryption solution. A recent Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study, for example, revealed that a typical enterprise-level organization can slash $2.7M off their bottom line through employing our flexible OneWorld encryption solution.

Get the full Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study of OneWorld here.

Achieving both regulatory compliance and customer-centricity

Like all companies, financial services organizations are subject to privacy regulations like the GDPR. But that’s the tip of the iceberg—and being non-compliant with these privacy laws comes with stiff sharp-toothed penalties.

Regulations financial services companies are subject to[1] or should be aware of include[2]:

  • FINRA guidelines
  • Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)
  • SEC 17A-3 and 17A-4
  • Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
  • Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP)
  • Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX)
  • EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
  • Canadian Securities Administrators National Instrument 31-303 (CSA NI)
  • Investment Dealers Association of Canada (IDA29.7)
  • Model Requirements for the Management of Electronic Records (MOREQ)
  • California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
  • New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) Cybersecurity Regulation

Since compliance is so integral to the financial services industry, it’s in your organization’s best interest to choose an encryption solution that has privacy by design; this means your secure email platform figures out how to send messages based on the policies you define during your initial service customization. For example, a business partner receives transparent encryption via TLS, a customer receives a monthly statement as a secure PDF attachment and a European bank may require PGP emails because employees have PGP software running on their desktops.

What customer-centric encryption means to your bottom line

In financial services, providing a frictionless and secure customer experience isn’t optional for seamless secure communication. But there are additional monetary benefits to choosing and implementing the right flexible encryption solution. For example, a recent Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study conducted by Forrester suggests that typical enterprise-level organizations employing Echoworx’s OneWorld encryption platform can slash nearly $320K off their bottom line with the adoption of self-service support options, like automatic password resets – increasing call centre productivity and removing the need for additional overhead.

Customer-centric encryption helps financial services organizations build and keep trust with clients, stay compliant and reduce costs. Isn’t it time to take advantage of this proven competitive differentiator?

The Echoworx Difference

At Echoworx, encryption is all we do. Our OneWorld encryption platform is a natural extension for most existing systems and offers a wide range of flexible, adaptable and dependable encryption delivery methods for use at enterprise-level corporations.

Learn more about the ROI of Echoworx OneWorld encryption here.

By: Christian Peel, VP Engineering at Echoworx

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[1] https://www.echoworx.com/project/encryption-technologies-financial-services/

[2] https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/regulatory/articles/banking-regulatory-outlook.html

22 Mar 2019
dont fear the paperless tiger
Customer Experience Christian Peel 0 comment

Don’t Fear the Paper Tiger: Paperless is Easier than You Think with Encryption

Every year, more than 500 billion bills[i] are sent to customers and that doesn’t even include monthly and quarterly statements for financial and health-related matters. Now, just imagine going to the post office and buying stamps for all those bills and statements.

Many organizations don’t have to imagine the high cost of postage because their processes and systems that depend on paper transactions make this a reality.

But going completely paperless is more complicated than just flipping a switch and turning on a computer – you need a secure environment for your digital documents. When an organization goes paperless, they enter a world of complex privacy regulations, like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), where non-compliance can trigger massive sharp-toothed fines. This is where having a comprehensive encryption strategy can help – and even plays to an organization’s advantage.

Here’s how you can leverage an encryption solution to go paperless, accelerate your digital transformation and achieve real business value:

The advantages of going paperless

Going paperless saves money – but only when digital documents are sent securely. A recent Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study conducted by Forrester, for example, suggests that enterprises using OneWorld encryption accelerate the digital transition of their mail delivery by ten percent. Given the average $1 cost-per-page associated with traditional mail, a typical enterprise-level organization using OneWorld can save $1.5M over three years.

Other advantages of going paperless include increased user satisfaction, streamlined processes and easing the burden of compliance with privacy regulations such as the GDPR.

Why organizations are reluctant to go paperless

Going paperless by adopting secure digital document delivery is a significant project that requires time, money, specialized expertise, the capability to integrate legacy data and systems and, sometimes, a change to current processes in how responses are sent and processed. Organizations with already-stretched IT resources are reluctant to take on a paperless project when it’s seen as a cost-driver, instead of a cost-savings initiative.

Paperless communications necessitate secure digital communication which means encryption. Expenses associated with an on-premise encryption solution include physical servers, maintenance staff and customer support resources. These legacy costs can be slashed during a paperless project. For example, by integrating the OneWorld encryption solution, a typical enterprise-level organization mitigates these upkeep costs–and saves about $795K over three years.[ii]

This reluctance to go paperless is based on fear of complexity, effort and security concerns – not facts. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, where digital transformation—including going paperless—is no longer optional for sustainable businesses, and is increasingly becoming a competitive edge with your customers.

Pain-free paperless use case: upgrading a legacy system

Enterprises might be unable to increase their paperless efforts on account of existing on-premise legacy encryption technology being unable to handle additional loads. But, on account of this existing outdated messaging infrastructure, even if the ROI of going paperless is intriguing, they may wonder how painful the project will be. It doesn’t have to be difficult if they pursue the right solution and work with the right people.

Going paperless helps businesses streamline processes, reduce resources and save money. The recent Forrester study, done on behalf of Echoworx, found a strong ROI for implementing the OneWorld encryption solution and a payback period of only about seven months.

We hope this encryption ROI research helps you put the Paper Tiger in its rightful place.

The Echoworx difference

At Echoworx, encryption is all we do. Our OneWorld encryption platform is a natural extension for most existing systems and offers a wide range of flexible, adaptable and dependable encryption delivery methods for use at enterprise-level corporations.

Learn more about the ROI of Echoworx OneWorld encryption here.

By: Christian Peel, VP Engineering at Echoworx

 

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[i] https://www.echoworx.com/how-can-we-convert-more-customers-to-paperless-billing/

[ii] https://www.echoworx.com/project/forrester-tei-of-echoworx-oneworld/

11 Mar 2019
Press Releases admin 0 comment

Total Economic Impact Study on Echoworx OneWorld Encryption Finds a 155% ROI

TORONTO – Echoworx, an industry leader in encryption solutions, is pleased to announce the release the new commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Echoworx quantifying the Total Economic Impact and benefits of the Echoworx OneWorld Encryption Platform. The study finds that, in addition to streamlining internal efficiency, a typical enterprise-level organization leveraging Echoworx OneWorld can expect a return on investment (ROI) of 155 per cent over a three-year period.

“This study is instrumental in showing organizations the real business value proposition presented by encryption – something normally just showing up as another cost,” says Echoworx CEO Michael Ginsberg.

In addition to providing valuable insights into what to expect from a third-party encryption provider, the purpose of this Total Economic Impact study by Forrester is to provide enterprise organizations, from governments to financial services to large-scale manufacturers, the multi-dimensional economic impact of integrating the OneWorld Encryption Platform.

Here are some key findings of this study, based on a typical enterprise-level organization:

  • OneWorld increases digital delivery of secure documents by 10 per cent, mitigating costs by $1.5M.
  • Moving to a Cloud-based encryption environment alleviates nearly-$800K of on-premise legacy system costs.
  • OneWorld reduces email encryption-related call center tickets by 80 per cent, with cost savings of nearly $320K.

About Echoworx

Echoworx is a trusted path to secure communications. As a pure-play encryption solutions provider, Echoworx works with finance, government, healthcare, legal, and compliance professionals to tailor secure communication solutions that don’t impede on customer experience. Our scalable encryption platform, OneWorld, can address multiple uses across an organization. Our encryption experts take pride in transforming chaos into order for leading multi-national enterprises using our SaaS encryption platform. Visit us at www.echoworx.com

09 Mar 2019
Customer Satisfaction
Customer Experience, Information Security Alex Loo 0 comment

How to stimulate digital engagement with customers

In the offline world, organizations build their customer base slowly over time and these customers generally become and stay loyal to the company—unless there’s a major screw up. But that’s not how it goes in the digital world; though competition is fierce, digital customers are easy to get but hard to keep. Even the smallest user-experience blip can send them packing.

Digital customer engagement—which relies heavily on digital communications—plays an important role in customer experience and satisfaction. Organizations must create an inviting digital environment that encourages engagement and builds digital trust. While digital trust is easy to gain, it’s easier to lose and impossible to get back.

With that in mind, we suggest your digital environment supports these four elements: security, user experience, cost mitigation and compliance. With these in place, it’s easier and safer than ever to stimulate digital engagement with your customers.

Secure communications

Customers expect built-in data security and yet 69 per cent of customers don’t believe organizations do everything they can to protect client data. Your organization can differentiate itself from the competition by delivering on the promise of secure communications. One way to ensure secure communications for all senders and receivers is by using an encryption solution with flexible delivery methods including TLS, S/MIME, PGP and secure web portals. Encryption is a value proposition for businesses that want to gain customer trust while protecting themselves against costly data breaches.

User experience

Customers get a good user experience when data protection is built into the process. Making encryption the default option takes advantage of the human condition—we tend to follow the path of least resistance. Save your customers the trouble of adding an extra step—if they remember or find the time—without leaving encryption to chance. Your choice of encryption can also protect your customers from phishing and spear phishing attacks, where malicious parties mimic your brand via email to steal private information or install malware. Encryption that can support multiple brands with multiple delivery methods in multiple languages assures customers that your secure messages are from a trusted source—not spam.

Cost mitigation

Customer engagement is desirable as part of a streamlined service that helps your clients and supports your business model. But if customer engagement systems chain you to the same old clunky hardware, more IT resources and more customer support staff, the costs can soon outweigh the benefits. The good news is it doesn’t have to be this way. For example, according to a recent study commissioned by Echoworx, moving your PGP system to a cloud-based encryption environment alleviates nearly $800K of on-premise legacy system costs—without any disruption to your customers.

See the full report here.

Compliance

Organizations are subject to multiple privacy regulations—including GDPR, PIPEDA and HIPAA—depending on where they operate and where their customers live. Violating these regulations leads to fines and penalties. For example, GDPR violations can cost up to $20 million or four percent annual turnover (whichever is greater). These regulations also make it mandatory to report any data breach. To give you an idea of how fleeting digital trust is, most digital customers will leave forever once they hear about a breach. When you choose an encryption platform, make sure it includes features to keep you on the right side of compliance—and helps your customers feel secure during their online engagement with you.

It’s harder and more important than ever to maintain digital trust. Set yourself up for success by implementing systems like encryption to support and stimulate your online customer engagement activities.

The Echoworx Difference

At Echoworx, encryption is all we do. Our OneWorld encryption platform is a natural extension for most existing systems and offers a wide range of flexible, adaptable and dependable encryption delivery methods for use at enterprise-level corporations.

Learn more about Echoworx OneWorld encryption delivery methods here.

By Alex Loo, VP of Operations at Echoworx