Is your data safe in your cloud email store?

There is a notable trend within companies, which we have seen first-hand, to migrate email from on premise/in-house email servers to cloud- based servers such as Microsoft Office 365 and Google. Companies are finding the cloud-based alternative better suited for their email requirements with the added advantage of reduced infrastructure cost and convenience, driving an exponential growth.

Google and Microsoft continue to drive business adoption for cloud-based email services with strong offerings that extend beyond email. Continued competition between Google and Microsoft is expected to have a positive effect on the cost of business cloud service offerings with an expected decrease in the cost for cloud business email services over the following 4 years.

Great emphasis has been placed on cloud storage service integration with improved consistency and collaboration within the cloud environment for improved user experience.  The combination of cloud storage with productivity tools, allowing users to upload, access, edit and collaborate files, within the cloud, enhances user experience and performance.  This feature is also emphasised by both Google and Microsoft.

A Table Showing Worldwide Adoption Of Cloud-based Email Accounts From 2014-2018

Research has shown that the trend for storage of data in the cloud is becoming the norm and is preferred over the storage of data on individual machines.

A concern for many customers is the security of their data, emails and documents, while entrusted to a cloud service provider.  Even large corporations like Microsoft are finding it necessary to offer security reassurance to larger customers in the form of NDA’s.

How can we be certain that our data is secure in the cloud…?

On many occasions we are made aware of the vulnerabilities through daily practices within organisations.  Recently, during a demonstration, we witnessed an unfortunate event within a corporates administrator’s office-all it took was an accidental opening of Microsoft Outlook.  The quick glimpse revealed that the individual was viewing his managers’ emails by delegating their email accounts in Exchange to his own.  An embarrassing moment for the individual and further realisation for us that this type of activity is frequent and widespread.

When comparing data vulnerability, leaks and theft, on premise (within an organisation) and in the cloud are both high. However email in storage is more vulnerable to malicious activity than email in transit (e.g. through sniffing) and having your email stored in the cloud increases its vulnerability rather than storing it on premise, as the potential for exposure is greatly increased.

Fraudulent service providers are present, they hand over email account passwords of individuals for a fee and guarantee there service by providing a snap shot of the individual’s inbox as proof.  To gain access to an email account is simple and once accessed to collect the data is even easier.

How can emails be secured…?

The answer to this question is simple- encrypt the emails.

Galaxkey provides a very easy to use infrastructure for email and document encryption. The software not only provides the capability to encrypt emails in transit but also encrypts emails during storage.

Galaxkey is the only product in the market that provides the capability for individuals to selectively encrypt existing emails in the mail store. This ability to secure your existing emails allows for reassurance that your data is not vulnerable to in-house or external threat.  With Galaxkey users can take back the responsibility for their data security and can easily ensure that their data is not viewable by anyone who has not been allowed access, be it in-house or external to the organisation.