How to Send a Secure Email: Tips for Staying Ahead

Information Security    | November 4, 2022

How do you maximize value – while gaining protection for your organization, co-workers, and customers?

Here are some ways to add some more muscle, value, and effectiveness to your email data protection efforts:

Protect for Any Scenario

Whether you are sending millions of e-statements or just sending a sensitive document, not every message is the same – and neither is every encryption solution. Protection that delivers industry-specific experiences rather than taking a ‘one size fits all’ approach will provide security that offers both a customizable user experience for senders as well as recipients.

While many companies already have encryption tools in place, changing needs and regulations mean that there is a constant need for modern capabilities in order to further mitigate risk from email breaches/data loss. In our study conducted with Forrester Research, 55% of respondents said that they need the capability to share secure email with diverse users. In addition, 50% also noted needing: integration with other security and encryption tools; secure guest messaging; and an improved user experience. Is your encryption platform offering you the right tools?

Simplify Processes

Of the 74% of organizations that are currently using an email data protection tool of some kind, the top challenges they report are all related to user experience; whether it be poor interface design, difficulty to use/ implement or lack of automation. Making data protection in email a consistent path of least resistance is a good non-intrusive way of encouraging everyone, inside and outside your organization, to communicate securely.

No matter how secure your message security process is, it is only valuable if it is used in the first place. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that a recent Echoworx-conducted survey reported that most IT and security decision-makers consider user acceptability as the number one factor to consider when assessing their authentication process, followed closely by workarounds and cost.

Personalize Secure Communications

If your organization operates internationally, there is a high chance your customers’ needs can’t be met with just one language. Offering encrypted communications in the language of your users helps eliminate confusion and is simply good customer service. With Echoworx, for example, you can set language policies which can automatically be applied to encrypted communications based on sender, brand, locale, or receiver attributes.

More Delivery Options

If a TLS (Transport Layer Security) connection is not available or supported at the receiving end, there are only two outcomes: receiving an error or sending a message unprotected. Supporting multiple secure delivery methods offers effective fallback options – ensuring sensitive information is always able to be sent and is never sent unprotected.

Echoworx customizable encryption provides eight optimal delivery methods for email and documents out of the box:

• TLS Encryption with Fallback
• Certificate Encryption (PGP & S/MIME)
• PDF Encryption
• Attachment Encryption (PDF, Office, and ZIP)
• Web Portal Encryption

Different Ways to Authenticate

Ensuring security without hindering ease of access is a common concern amongst most tech leaders – 98% of which reported that their employees find opening encrypted emails and documents frustrating, according to our survey conducted by Gartner in 2022. Giving authentication method options is one way of improving user experience with maintaining security and avoiding workarounds.

While a one-time-password encryption method is secure, the password itself is only as secure as how it is sent. In other words, if both the one-time-password and the encrypted message are sent to the same mailbox, there is a lot of trust being put into the security of a recipient’s device or email inbox. A natural solution to this issue is access to more authentication options including: Full OAuth Access, Self-Registration, Shared Secret Passphrase, SSO, System Generated Verification Codes and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).

With 100% of IT leaders surveyed reporting that a streamlined process for secure exchange of information was at least somewhat important to their workforce, a variety of authentication options is essential to an effective email encryption strategy.

Improving data protection across multiple environments was reported as the top priority for tech leaders, with 73% agreeing that it was their number one security focus for the next year.

Implementing an effective, simple, and customizable email encryption solution, like Echoworx Email Encryption, will help you stay ahead of potential cybersecurity threats and keep your business functioning smoothly and securely.