In the past year, hundreds of individuals made the switch to working from home. The quantity of private information exchanged on the Internet has soared. Customers’ data, login passwords, and other sensitive information are sent between employees through email and other online communication channels. It has created new security dangers for both firms and their workers, even for those who have purchased comprehensive cyber insurance coverage in the past. Thus the realization of the importance of email encryption.
Regardless of the industry, the relationship of trust between the client and the firm is critical to the business’s success. When there is a lack of trust, it is tough to close a deal. A partner and a customer must put their faith in a supplier or partner to ensure that their personal information is handled responsibly. The proper management of private information and a strong emphasis on information security is more critical than ever. They are essential preconditions for a company’s success. With email encryption, any company can keep sensitive or confidential information away from anyone that it isn’t intended for.
Sadly, the bulk of unintentional cybersecurity issues are often traced back to corporate email accounts. Therefore, it is critical to strengthen any email security measures. Email encryption is, by far, the most effective method of protecting any confidential content. Likewise, it prevents data breaches and data theft. In contrast, when emails are encrypted, the contents of the emails are jumbled, allowing only the intended receiver to read the messages they contain.
What Is Email Encryption?
All of the spam and junk mail that recipients get is filtered away by most email providers. However, no matter how hard you try, your email will never be completely clean and safe. A lot may happen in the email arena, from the introduction of harmful viruses to phishing scams, to name a few examples. Nevertheless, there is a technique of locking email content and rendering it unreadable to third parties, known as email encryption. Once the material has been encrypted, it is no longer understandable. Anyone who gains access to it will be unable to understand it unless they have the necessary decryption key.
Email encryption helps to safeguard critical information from hackers or other unwanted parties by allowing only certain people to view and read the communications. Significant public infrastructure (PKI) technology is used to encrypt emails at rest and while in transit. PKI technology is the golden standard for digital verification and encryption. PKI technology is used to protect emails that are stored or at rest as well as in transit. Because all email information and attachments are transmitted encrypted, attackers will be unable to intercept or read the contents of the messages. Furthermore, even if an attacker succeeds in obtaining the password for a mail server, no vital information will be compromised since the content and attachments stored on the server are encrypted before being forwarded to the recipient through the mail server.
Using critical pairs based on PKI technology, you may use email encryption to offer a safe and scalable way of authentication and encryption. This encryption process depends on using two linked encryption keys, a public one and a private one, which is used in conjunction with public-key cryptography as the foundational technology for PKI. These two keys are used in conjunction with one another to encrypt and decode messages. The public key comprises a string of random digits and may be used to encrypt a message or verify its authenticity. This encrypted message can only be decrypted and read by the intended recipient, who has access to the related private key, which comprises a lengthy string of randomly generated integers. This private key is a closely guarded secret that you should only know to the intended recipient. The key pair is mathematically connected, which means that whatever is encrypted using a public or private key can only be decrypted by the key pair’s mathematically matched opposite.
Two Primary Protocols For Encrypting Emails
Encryption through Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol
Email service providers such as Microsoft and Google use encryption via the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. It can protect emails as they travel from sender to receiver. It prevents emails from being viewed after they have been sent but before they have been delivered to the recipient.
Before the introduction of TLS Protocols, it was usual for cybercriminals to read emails while they were in transit. That led to many leaks of information and compromised data for many companies. These kinds of assaults, known as man-in-the-middle attacks, can be very harmful to enterprises and industries.
However, it is worth noting that even though TLS offers excellent protection against these specific attacks, emails are only safe while they are in transit. That implies that if cybercriminals successfully gain access to an email account via phishing or another method, they will be able to view any emails or attachments sent to the particular account.
End-to-end Email Encryption
TLS encryption on its own does not offer an appropriate degree of security for emails containing sensitive information or for commercial communications. To combat this, many businesses are turning to corporate email encryption solutions that enable end-to-end encryption. End-to-end encryption guarantees that the sender encrypts email communications. The intended recipient can only decode it on their device instead of a single point of failure.
End-to-end encrypted emails are protected at every step of the delivery process and are inaccessible even to email servers themselves. Cyber crooks will find it very difficult to compromise critical information or attachments as a result of this. To put it another way, end-to-end encryption protects email by using public keys like PKI. The sender encrypts communications using the recipient’s public key, which is obtained from the receiver. The receiver then decrypts the communication with the use of a private key.
What Is the Importance of Email Encryption?
Email Encryption Is Essential, Mainly When Communicating Sensitive Information
People prefer to utilize electronic communication tools for transferring sensitive information, such as personal information. It may also contain contract documents, firm business confidential notes, and even carries various passwords for different parties, among other things. Everyone is well aware that all of the information discussed above is sensitive and should be kept secret and that it slipped into the wrong hands.
It Is Beneficial To Invest in Email Encryption as It May Save the Organization a Great Lot of Trouble in the Long Run
Given the widespread use of email communication by businesses and government agencies, there is always a need to communicate secret information rapidly in these situations. Thus email encryption should be a fundamental necessity. While this is becoming more common, many organizations are failing to do so. It is most likely due to a combination of ignorance and neglect. Unfortunately, some are not always aware of the dangers of using email for business communication.
Likewise, disclosing confidential information to third parties outside of the business or to public authorities may have significant negative consequences for the organization. The information leak may result in the loss of revenue or reputation and penalties or even criminal proceedings in the worst-case scenario. Therefore, investing in data and email encryption will always be an excellent investment.
Final Thoughts
To prevent eavesdroppers from gaining access to or altering the contents of emails and attachments transmitted across untrusted networks, email encryption software is a must. This encryption software seeks to be entirely undetectable for senders while being highly useable by receivers. It can effectively safeguard company data as most solutions automatically encrypt outgoing emails at the email gateway. It usually gives the receiver an email with a URL to follow to obtain, decode, and retrieve the actual encrypted email.
These days, modern email encryption software takes care of everything behind the scenes, eliminating a significant barrier to the broader use of the technology. When compared to prior generations of email encryption methods, which required senders and recipients to exchange encryption keys manually, this represents a significant improvement. As you rely on email encryption, there is a secure mechanism for a company to deliver critical data to its customers, business partners, and other stakeholders asynchronously without compromising any information.
References
https://digitalguardian.com/blog/what-email-encryption
https://www.deltagon.com/blog/why-you-should-encrypt-your-email
