The distributed workforce is here to stay. Transitioning away from a central workplace has the potential for creating complacency and increases the likelihood of workarounds and mistakes that could compromise company data. Those concerns validate why it is more important than ever that businesses enhance protection measures for corporate and personal information.
The problem is that employees are more likely to relax their stance when working from home with less supervision and a more casual atmosphere. For example, the process of saving data in a corporate information system may no longer be as easy or secure when people are working elsewhere. Without adequate safeguards in place, those actions could require permissions or oversight by managers or IT professionals due to concerns related to the use of unsecured personal devices and networks.
There are many measures MSPs can implement to guide their clients to a safer and more secure WFH environment. Perhaps the most essential is email encryption. Here are just a few reasons why MSPs need to be offering, implementing, and supporting these business-essential technologies.
1. Compliance
Virtually every industry must follow some laws and regulations that involve email. For example, HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) requires medical professionals to protect sensitive patient information, including its transport and storage. FINRA (the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) has retention mandates for email correspondence between brokers and dealers. Encryption is necessary for ensuring the confidentiality of that information, especially in outbound messages to clients, partners, and others. Employees working from home and other suspect environments significantly raise the chances of compromising that data. The consequences of inaction and poor security practices are hefty fines, lawsuits, further legal actions, customer loss, and reputational damage.
2. Personal Information Privacy
Businesses that store PII (Personally Identifiable Information) such as names, social security numbers, credit data, and other individual-specific details must understand and address the associated risks. More importantly, they need security measures like encryption to neutralize potential vulnerabilities. Multi-layer encoding with automatic key rotation will keep information safe in transit, and expiration protocols can ensure messages terminate at a preset time. All these measures prevent cybercriminals from gaining access to PII and protect businesses’ reputation and financial health.
3. Sharable Across Devices
In a highly mobile world, organizations need the ability to encrypt messages on any email client using any operating system. Some encryption providers have constraints relating to if or how well they work on various mobile technologies. For example, Mailprotector’s Bracket provides MSPs and their clients with cross-platform capabilities, whether using iPhones, Android-enabled systems, Windows PCs, or other devices − it works. That flexibility makes it easy for anyone to send and receive secure messages regardless of their technology preferences and take advantage of message retention, discovery, and reporting capabilities.
4. Emphasizes Professionalism
Security is a differentiator. Companies that utilize effective data protection measures to protect their customers, employees, and business partners look more professional than their less attentive competitors. Similarly, MSPs that provide their clients with effective encryption programs set themselves apart from the pack.
Get Started Today
The WFH movement has been a significant adjustment for everyone, especially where security is concerned. The businesses that were slow to implement needed solutions now have no choice but to upgrade.
MSPs have the opportunity to position themselves as their clients’ go-to IT professionals and put them on the path to more secure environments. While several tools may fit in your clients’ data protection plans, encryption is one of the most valuable and cost-effective investments, no matter the industry.
Boost your customers’ cybersecurity measures with Bracket ™ by Mailprotector, a highly user-friendly email encryption and file sharing solution that protects data in transit. Solve your clients’ main security concerns quickly and effectively. Learn more about Bracket™ and all the latest features, and request a demo at https://www.mailprotector.com/encryption/.
