Email has become, over the last two decades, the accepted means by which communication between businesses takes place.  We all use it every day, perhaps without thinking in many cases.  But is it the right way to send confidential or secure information?  And how do we control what happens when it gets to the recipient’s inbox?  Will our confidential information be forwarded in error, deleted, misfiled, or simply ignored?

This raises some important questions:

• Do we trust email for the transfer of confidential information?  In this age of spamming, phishing, banking scams, and sundry other criminal activities based on email, are we happy to entrust private, mission-critical information to this medium?
• Even if we were to find a completely secure, encrypted email transmission and receipt service that everybody we might want to communicate with was happy to use, are we still sure that attachments are handled correctly at the other end?
• And what if you are travelling, and can’t get access to your desktop email client with encryption keys, does everything stop and wait for you?

At Safe4, we believe that there is a better way of achieving complete security of information transfer.  With the Information Commissioner announcing fines of up to £500,000 for breaches of information security, this is not a good time to ignore this issue.

The UK’s legal professional makes use of insecure email constantly.  Most legal professionals instinctively use email to send highly confidential information as attachments.  Perhaps better alternatives can now be considered?