Can Encrypted Email Replace Faxing?

Many people praised the dawn of email. Before email, companies had to send snail mail, pay a carrier or hand deliver documents. The internet, once it moved out of the basements of geekdom, changed the entire landscape of business as we knew it. However, a few industries such as health care, legal and finance still rely on fax technology for secure transfers.

Why fax? Because fax transmissions over phone lines are considered more secure than standard email. That is changing. Many large, multi-location companies already employ secure online fax and or encrypted email services. In addition, many small companies have never owned a fax machine and leaped straight to using an online fax service. Fax services have the advantage of being able to send documents to standard fax machines, whereas secure email services do not. However, compliance and regulatory industries are now accepting certain methods of transmission, even for Personally Identifying Information (PII) and information that must be transmitted in a HIPPA-compliant manner by email or internet.

Some people even argue that encrypted emails are more secure than standard fax transmissions. Here are few reasons:

1.Documents do not sit on the fax machine available to peering eyes before the recipient picks up the papers.
2.Items do not have to be printed before transmission. Sensitive information waiting at a printer is vulnerable.
3.Secure emails go only to the targeted recipient, and the sender can employ a variety of identification methods before they are allowed to view it.
4.Messages can be archived and secured digitally, which is easier and more affordable than trying to secure traditional file cabinets.
5.Encrypted emails are difficult to lose. You might misplace a fax or physical folder, but it is difficult to lose an electronic file that is redundantly stored.

Depending on the email encryption service, numerous types of security methods are employed, from AES encryption to physically protected data centers. One advantage to using an encrypted email service rather than a fax is policy filters. An employee can create a document and fax it without interference. However, top email security services provide tools for enforcing policy, which takes control out of the hands of the employees. For example, you can set the policy filter at the gateway to scan and block certain information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers and even HR files. It will encrypt the documents if necessary or block the information from transmitting and notify the administrator that the attempt was made. A fax machine cannot do that.

While many advocates are pushing for secure and affordable internet transfers of (Personal Healthcare Information) PHI and PII data, there are a few that still hold on to their fax machines. While it may be difficult for many of us to believe, some businesses are located in areas without high-speed internet. The last thing they want to do is to clog up their bandwidth with sending or receiving large files. In addition, others hold to traditional methods and have not yet made the leap. However, soon enough, fax machines will be retired and all secure transfers will be sent via the internet using encrypted email, online fax services or direct secure connections.

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