Safe and secure communications are a concern by the most ordinary individual to the highest officials of companies, organizations, and governments. The digital age is no less different. Access to a person’s email can give the right people many benefits. Still, few use email encryption software to make their communications secure.
Breach of security, broken trust
Although people use social media to tell each other about what they do, when it comes to “serious” activities email is still the preferred medium. Businesses, organizations and government offices heavily use email as the preferred form of online information exchange and transaction.
It is small wonder, then, that when criminals want to find sensitive information, they raid email archives. In 2011, several important companies and organizations were hacked. In all cases, email archives were part of what hackers took, compromising the security and even safety of ordinary persons and high officials alike.
Your email travels through various networks before it reaches its intended recipient. Anywhere along this chain, it can be intercepted and its contents taken, especially if it passes through an unsecured node or one that is being monitored, usually by spyware. The Federal Trade Commission itself recognized the threat spyware programs have to consumers.
Unless you have this, anyone who can access these areas can clearly see what you wrote. They do not even need special software to read it because the part that includes your message is in plain text. This is fine if all you have to say is how you spent your vacation. If your communications contains sensitive information, then you have a problem in your hands.
Securing what you say
Email encryption is nothing new, neither is it rocket science. Email programs have this software at the ready. But for those a bit more serious about their privacy and the protection of critical information, more professional email encryption software exists. These have more options than simply turning your electronic correspondence into gibberish for anyone without the decryption key.
For example, good email encryption software can shield you and those who are part of your system from phishing attacks. Although you can constantly remind staff, friends, and family to check and double-check the sender of emails they receive, people forget this most basic detail of email security. If you have excellent software, it can tag trusted members so everyone knows at a glance if they should even open (and reply to) an email or not.
Good email encryption fosters trust. With it, you can confidently send and receive important documents and information through email. Invoices, financial statements and even account information can be sent through the Internet without you having to worry about it falling into the wrong hands. Add to that cross-platform use and you have just taken a very big step in reclaiming the privacy of your electronic correspondence. One maliciously accessed email can wreck a life. With email encryption, it does not have to be yours.
Source by Mae D O’Connell