Email Encryption- All You Wanted To Know!

To put it simple, email encryption is the process of authenticating and encrypting email messages to protect from unscrupulous hacking, cyber crime and inadvertent recipients. Highly secure, state-of-the-art technology is used to encrypt messages with the aid of a public key, and a private key to decipher the emails. Public key cryptography is a new and efficient process of encryption that enables users to include a public key so that others can use the key to encrypt messages. On the other hand, users should keep the private key secret to sign emails digitally, encrypt or decrypt messages. Secure mail helps in protecting confidential and sensitive messages from prying eyes.

How to Encrypt?

There are different ways to encrypt email and exchange sensitive data; however, the best practice is to implement a system that is most suitable and effective for your organization’s needs. A good way is to hire secure email service that is worth your investment. Such companies use high-end encryption technology that makes the process easy, efficient and the most secure. Simply automate the process of encrypting emails and you can send important messages among clients, groups and individuals, manage security and reporting policies, and secure messages within customers, business associates, and partners.

Though it is impossible to consider all the key factors in choosing the best possible encryption standard, the major concern should be the organizational standards used to communicate. Ad-hoc encryption methods require the system to generate random passwords for every email message. The password is then communicated separately to the recipient. The same method can be used to generate a pre-defined password for all messages rather than having an automatically created one.

However, such system works best occasionally and not for regular email communication. Other high-end encrypted email methods such as S/MIME and PGP standards not only automate the process, but also facilitate secure exchange of passwords. Secure gateways also store digital certificates for authenticating recipients before encrypting or sending messages.

Challenges of Encryption

Secure mail with encryption – it sounds simple than done! Of course, there are several challenges that you will face while deploying encryption technology in the organization. The major issues are compatibility and simplicity. Email encryption technology has to be simple and easy to manage. After all, you cannot expect users to boggle their minds with complex tools and abstract concepts to secure messages. The best practice is to have a smart management tool that allows automatically encrypted messages to flow with the word "Confidential" in the subject line. The process is transparent and simple to the users and everything is handled automatically.

On the other hand, another major challenge is to have an encryption system that is compatible to the organization’s communication standard. Users should be able to encrypt individual messages on ad-hoc basis and the process should be as simple as typing password and clicking Send. Moreover, encryption standards used among organizations should be compatible with each other; otherwise, messages can’t be deciphered. On one hand, encryption brings in business benefits; on the other hand, it is a challenge as well. Therefore, organizations should hire professional secure email service that easily overcomes the challenges of simplicity and compatibility, offering the best value for your money.

About The Author

Zeena McWarden is a cyber security expert who writes many interesting articles to help bring email encryption and its advantages into the domain of common people. You can trust her advice for all your data security and integrity preservation requirements.

Zeena McWarden is a cyber security expert who writes many interesting articles to help bring email encryption and its advantages into the domain of common people. You can trust her advice for all your data security and integrity preservation requirem