A business email archiving solution can help prevent one of the most underrated cybersecurity threats – employees stealing confidential data to either sell on the black market or use as leverage to get a new job. These scenarios happen more often than many businesses are aware of, and – according to recent research – few businesses take precautions to prevent it.
Warnings about employee data theft have been circulating for almost a decade. In 2009, the Ponemon Institute published a report in which it was claimed that nearly 60% of departing employees take data with them. At the time, the majority of email data theft was related to customer contact lists, but since the growth of the BYOD movement there has been a trend for data theft to be more sinister.
A report released in early 2017 by Osterman Research revealed that 69% of businesses surveyed had experienced “significant data or knowledge loss” due to the actions of departing employees – including the malicious alteration or deletion of email data. Researchers found that three in five businesses were unprepared for employee data theft, with fewer still using a business email archiving solution.
How a Business Email Archiving Solution Can Prevent Data Loss
The report by Osterman Research acknowledges not all data theft is malicious – some employees do it inadvertently, while others see nothing wrong in taking intellectual property they have created into a new job with them. This does not necessarily mean that businesses do not suffer because of the actions of former employees, and researchers suggest a solution – secure email archiving.
The report claims that a business email archiving solution is essential because many businesses are under the misapprehension that email services such as Office 365 provide backup and recovery services by default. A solution for archiving business email can eliminate the threat of “significant data or knowledge loss” due to employees deleting business-critical emails before they leave their jobs.
A business email archiving solution can also mitigate the risk of an employee stealing data that has been accumulating in corporate email accounts – although, in order to best mitigate this risk, it is best for businesses to have archive policies based on the nature of the data, rather than how long it has remained unmodified. Archived email data can always be retrieved when needed.
Why a Cloud-Based Solution for Archiving Business Email is the Best Solution
A cloud-based solution for archiving business email copies all inbound and outbound emails from a business´s mail server and exports it to a dedicated server in a secure data center. During the export process, data is compressed, deduplicated and encrypted to save space and ensure compliance with industry data security regulations. The data remains encrypted when stored on the dedicated server.
Authorized users can retrieve emails and their attachments from any Internet-enabled device, which is especially important now that remote working has increased due to COVID-19. Searches are quick and easy, and do not involve searching through physical media to discover which tape or disc the data has been backed up onto. Once located, the email(s) can be printed, exported to file, or restored to the business´s email server. A legal hold can also be placed on emails.
A further significant benefit of a cloud-based business email archiving solution is that any alterations to an archived email are recorded and logged. The tamper-evident process ensures the integrity of data and fulfills the business´s audit compliance requirements. It can also be a considerable factor in resolving HR issues and civil legal actions.
Compliance and Other Benefits of a Business Email Archiving Solution
In addition to mitigating the threat of employee data theft, a business email archiving solution helps businesses in regulated industries comply with security, retention and disaster recovery regulations. A solution for archiving business emails frees up space on servers, and lessens the demands made on IT departments – especially from employees asking how to recover an email they have deleted in error. Employees can be given access to their own archives to find deleted emails.
A cloud-based business email archiving solution save businesses time and money on e-discovery and compliance audits, and – due to the indexing systems used – can help quickly resolve client queries or HR issues. Unauthorized access to business-critical data – either from within or outside the business – is prevented, and retention policies can be enacted to avoid the accidental deletion of important emails.
A solution for archiving business emails is quick to implement, easy to use, and can be integrated with backend management tools such as Active Directory and LDAP to set permission tiers. The solutions also have a comprehensive suite of reporting options so that administrators can monitor access to archived items and identify any unusual or client-specific activity.
Business Email Archiving for GDPR Compliance
From May 25, 2018, businesses that collect, process or store the personal data of EU citizens are subject to the rules of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The rules of GDPR stipulate citizens have specific rights about how their personal data is collected, processed and stored – and protected.
These rules allow EU citizens to request access to any personal data about themselves stored in an email database, and for their request to be resolved within thirty days. In order to retrieve a full data set within thirty days, businesses will find an email archiving solution much more efficient than a backed up database. When an EU citizen exercises their “right to be forgotten”, emails can be quickly found and deleted. Furthermore, a business email archiving solution will also comply with the GDPR rules relating to data security and audit trails.
The benefits of business email archiving for GDPR compliance do not only extend to the easy accessibility of data and data security. Businesses who fail to comply with GDPR will be subject to significant penalties. A business can be fined up to €20 million or 4% of its global turnover for failing to comply with GDPR – wherever they are located and regardless of whether a data breach has occurred or not.
ArcTitan – SpamTitan’s Solution for Archiving Business Emails
ArcTitan is an effective business email archiving solution for businesses of all sizes and in all industries. Compliant with Acts such as HIPAA, SOX and GDPR, ArcTitan is versatile, compatible and scalable – supporting up to 60,000 users without the need for a business to add storage, manage servers or migrate data.
Allowing searches by individual user, user-group or universally, ArcTitan can archive 200 emails per second and search 30 million emails per second – giving users practically instant access to archived data. ArcTitan from SpamTitan is universally compatible with all leading email service providers, and particularly appropriate for businesses that use Office 365.
To find out more about our solution for archiving business emails, contact SpamTitan today. Out team of highly-trained Sales Technicians will be able to answer any questions you have about our business email archiving solution and organize a free demo so you can witness the benefits of ArcTitan in action.
