Email Encryption – What is it?

Email encryption software protects email messages and attachments sent via untrusted networks (such as the Internet), in order to secure its contents from being intercepted, read or altered, protecting both the sender and recipient.

Why do we need it?

A large majority of our communications are sent via email, either for business or personal use. Secure email encrypts the information to be sent and ensures that only the intended recipient/s can read the contents. However, regular emails can be intercepted and read by anyone.

If you send important or sensitive information via email, do you know who is accessing and reading their content?

What are the benefits?

Utilising email encryption offers confidentiality, auditability and is key to transporting/transmitting sensitive information in a compliant manner. You wouldn’t write your credit card details or personal information on a postcard to send through the post would you? Therefore, why would you send this type of confidential information by an unsecure email format?

How should it be used?

It is our recommendation to send all email communications via a secure encrypted solution, whether sensitive or not, but it isn’t entirely necessary. In our opinion if it is as easy to send an email via a secure manner as it is sending in your usual way, why would you not send it encrypted? Why would you give anyone a reason to intercept a single correspondence when to all intents and purposes all your emails are sensitive and why highlight just one? Kind of like hiding a needle in a haystack.