Systems for secure email backup and storage for law firms can vary considerably in terms of usability, functionality, security, and speed of archiving. There is a choice of deployment options, differences exist in how emails are backed up and stored, and – importantly – how easy they are to retrieve.
Some systems for secure email backup and storage for law firms fail to provide delegation mechanisms in order to prevent unauthorized access to business-critical archived data, while other neglect to include features that provide a tamper-evident audit trail.
However, possibly the most important feature to consider when evaluating secure email backup and storage systems for law firms is the point at which emails are backed up and stored. Any system that fails to provide real time backup and storage will not comply with industry regulations relating to security and retention.
The Significance of Real Time Backup and Storage
Secure email backup and storage systems for law firms have two ways of backing up and storing – or archiving – data. One is to copy and store every email as it passes in or out of the mail server. The other is periodic archiving. The problem with periodic archiving is that an email could enter or leave the mail server – and be deleted or altered – before a copy of the original is made.
Real time archiving, together with a tamper-evident audit trails, ensures law firms can provide immutable emails during e-discovery or to support litigation. It also ensures law firms relying on their backup and storage system to be part of a disaster recovery plan have an accurate email database to restore, and that data is protected against the malicious acts of a departing employee or cybercriminal.
As many of a law firm´s clients may operate in a regulated industry requiring the long-term retention of email data, real time secure email backup and storage for law firms is also important to protect clients´ interests. Should a client send a law firm an email containing retainable data, and the email is deleted before it can be backed up and stored, the law firm may be considered at fault in future legal action.
How Secure is Secure Email Backup and Storage for Law Firms?
In order to answer this question, it is necessary to return to the three deployment options. Hardware-based secure email backup and storage systems for law firms are only secure if the hardware or media onto which data is copied is not damaged, lost or stolen. Software-based systems are subject to malware and hacking that can result in a loss of data event if the data is encrypted by ransomware.
The third deployment option is a cloud-based system. Cloud-based systems are as secure as the data center the email data is stored in. However, most cloud-based secure email backup and storage systems for law firms encrypt data at rest and in transit so it is unusable if stolen, and constantly backup email data to ensure it can always be recovered. Cloud-based systems are now considered to be the most secure option.
However, using a cloud-based system for secure email backup and storage for law firms does not mean the law firm can relax its own security mechanisms. Cloud-based secure email backup and storage systems for law firms can usually be accessed via the web, so it is important that employees are aware of the risk of phishing emails to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of login credentials.
Other Advantages of Cloud-Based Backup and Storage Systems
In addition to providing the most secure email backup and storage for law firms, cloud-based systems have a greater capacity for data than hardware or software systems. Both hardware and software systems have limits for how much data they can backup and store and, as the volume of archived data exceeds these limits, law firms have to purchase more hardware or more server space.
Cloud-based secure email backup and storage systems for law firms expand dynamically in storage capacity as email data grows over time. The cost of implementing these solutions is usually “per user”, irrespective of the amount of data stored, so law firms have no need to budget for the inevitable growth of email data, nor add storage, manager servers or migrate data.
It is also easier to search and retrieve data from cloud-based secure email backup and storage systems for law firms due to emails from all servers and exchanges being indexed and placed into one large online store. Users can search email data using a number of different search criteria, and then print the results, export them to file or restore to the mail server. The speed and simplicity at which email data can be restored enhances productivity and releases some of the strain from IT Support.
ArcTitan Secure Email Backup and Storage Systems for Law Firms
ArcTitan is a cloud-based system for secure email backup and storage for law firms from SpamTitan. It is a “set and forget” system that transfers data to and from an IL5 certified data center in real time via mandatory TLS protocols. An advanced delegation mechanism compatible with LDAP and Active Directory together with tamper-evident audit trails ensures your data is secure and your law firm will never lose an email again.
ArcTitan supports all email service providers and is effective across multiple Exchange servers and multiple Exchange stores to archive email data in one location. Prior to archiving data, ArcTitan removes any duplicated content and attachments to accelerate searches and eliminate duplicates from search results. Despite this productivity-enhancing feature, ArcTitan is capable of indexing, compressing and archiving up to 200 emails per second.
Our system for secure email backup and storage for law firms is HIPAA and SOX compliant for email retention and auditing, and allows system administrators to define retention policies to fit clients´ regulatory needs. Effectively, it is not possible to accidentally delete a client-sensitive email without a deliberate change to the retention policy. Again, it is worth commenting that a cloud-based system for secure email backup and storage for law firms does not imply a relaxation of existing security mechanisms.
ArcTitan is versatile, compatible and scalable. It can search a database of 30 million emails in less than a second, data can be imported from existing data archives in a large variety of formats, and exported to EML, MSG, PDF, TIFF and PST. It supports up to 60,000 users and our Client Support Managers are always on hand to guide your administrators and users through the process of secure email backup and storage for law firms - and, of course, simple data retrieval.
Key Features of ArcTitan
- Scalable, email archiving that grows with your business
- Email data stored securely in the cloud on Replicated Persistent Storage on AWS S3
- Lightning fast searches – Search 30 million emails a second
- Rapid archiving at up to 200 emails a second
- Automatic backups of the archive
- Email archiving with no impact on network performance
- Ensure an exact, tamperproof copy of all emails is retained
- Easy data retrieval for eDiscovery
- Protection for email from cyberattacks
- Eliminate PSTs and other security risks
- Facilitates policy-based access rights and role-based access
- Only pay for active users
- Slashes the time and cost of eDiscovery other formal searches
- Migration tools to ensure the integrity of data during transfer
- Seamless integration with Outlook
- Supports, single sign-on
- Save and combine searches
- Perform multiple searches simultaneously
- Limits IT Department involvement in finding lost email
- Compliant with regulations such as HIPAA, SOX, GDPR, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, etc.
Request a Demo of ArcTitan in Action
If your law firm is not yet backing up and storing emails securely and compliantly, or is dissatisfied with the high maintenance overheads of your current archiving system, why not contact our team of Sales Technicians and request a free demo of ArcTitan in action. Our Sales Technicians will be happy to answer any questions you have about the issues mentioned above and organize a demo at a convenient time for you and your IT team.
The deployment of ArcTitan is straightforward and we are happy to liaise with your IT team to facilitate a seamless integration. As ArcTitan does not use proprietary format, there are no costly or time-consuming data conversions to perform, and your law firm could be complying with industry regulations relating to security and retention within minutes. Contact us today to find out more and to take advantage of our cloud-based secure email backup and storage for law firms.
