Opening the envelope vs. opening the email

A piece of mail sitting in your mailbox is hardly secure. It can be removed, read, changed and replaced without your knowledge. However traditional mail delivery does have one thing going for it – you have to physically go to each post box to collect it.

Unlike post boxes, websites are publicly accessible, so the security requirements immediately become more stringent. Registration and multiple levels of authentication become necessary, but also cause usability and liability issues.

This leaves you with ease and convenience on one hand vs. barriers and tons of effort on the other. Where’s the middle ground? Email of course. An email address is an online version of a post box but with the benefits of technology that can be layered on top in order to make it far more secure than its paper counterpart.

Reasons to consider sending documents via email

• Cost
• Convenience
• Security
• Support for corporate e-communication and CRM initiatives
• Drives qualified web traffic
• Marketing
• Customer experience insight
• Environmental impact

Security’s role in eDocument delivery

• Encryption – the process of scrambling data from its original format into one that is unreadable except by authorized persons, by using one or more algorithms and keys
• Password strenth
• Data Protection
• Usability & customer convenience

Encryption should be at the forefront of your security precautions. People often think that using encryption in email is too much work. It can be difficult for the encryption novice. Managing public and private keys are confusing in the beginning and getting someone on the other end to use encryption can be a challenge. Good encryption practice is not a “set-and-forget” proposition where you can just go through the hassle of setup once and be done with it. It requires maintenance.

Encryption is your last defense against malicious security hackers violating your privacy. When all other means of protecting the data on your computer prove ineffective, encryption is the last barrier against your most sensitive data being accessible to people who simply should not have it.

Some helpful information for this blog was gathered from Striata