Managing complexities of corporate

emails in an insecure world

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Introduction

Email communication is a backbone of all the

communications and business processes in an

organization. Various researches have

indicated that more than 70% of business

information in any organization resides in

email.

At the same time, complexities involved in

corporate email management have increased

multifold. With hacking techniques getting

sophisticated, data in emails is constantly

under a threat of being stolen. Employees can

knowing or unknowingly can leak the sensitive

data to outsiders. On other hand, email size

and volumes are constantly growing and

archiving such large data getting difficult as

every passing day. Increased usage of mobile

devices is posing new challenges on syncing

and securing the data. And all the while one

have to make sure that business is not

impacted when some part of email service is

not functioning.

This paper will highlight the challenges

involved in managing corporate email and

suggest approaches to convert these

challenges into opportunities.

External threats to email security

With the advent in technology, highly skilled

and sophisticated hackers are waiting to sniff

off high value data information. Blended

content which combines both email and web

threats will look like a genuine message from

your vendor or customer and will lead you to

trap where you identity can be stolen

To overcome these challenges, many

organization’s install Anti-spam solutions.

However, these solutions lack protection from

day-zero virus outbreaks as well as cannot

ensure the secure transactions. A cloud based

security solutions can be effective to avoid

day-zero viruses and the encrypted mail

transactions. Having email data in cloud also

translates to data residing at a secure location

than infected laptops or mobile phones.

Data leak prevention

Almost every employee has access to some or

other form of sensitive data that could be of

immensely useful to competitors. Controlling

what information leaves your company

network has become imperative. While

controlling the information, one has to make

sure that a role based policies and control are

implemented. For example, top management

may want to send all the documents while

contractual employees should be able send

mail only within the organization.

An effective data leak prevention system

should have ability to mould itself as per

business requirements. It is always beneficial

to have DLP system at the network or

gateway level as it is easily configurable

Challenges with Mobile devices

Many organizations are now embracing BYOD

policy and allowing employees to access data

on their personal phones. Mobile messaging

devices keep employees in touch with

colleagues and customers, but constant

connectivity also blurs the line between

personal and business use and lead to

potential security threats.

It is important to make sure that only certain

employees should have access to corporate

email on their mobile and email transactions

using mobile devices are always secure and

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encrypted. Remote wipe is very useful in the

event of employee losing the mobile device or

leaving the organization.

The mobility solutions should be evaluated

based on ability to configure the policies

remotely, role based access control, complete

data sync across the devices, data protection

in case of theft etc.

Email archiving and backup

The traditional methods of archiving include

backing up mailbox files from local machine of

each user. However this method of archival is

not scalable and reliable as the company size

increases or the users are spread across

geography. User can delete the mails before

even getting backed up.

With the increase in email volume and email

size, the archiving and restoration is getting

out of control due to sheer size of data, data

indexing and data discovery.

The archiving solutions should provide easy

way to archive the email as soon as it is sent

or received. It should be scalable in case of

any spurt of emails. The solution should be

device agnostic and should provide an easy

mechanism to restore the mails. It is always

advisable to archive or backup the data at the

cloud.

Ensuring business continuity

Email is the most preferred communication

channel to conduct business as it is very fast,

can address group of persons at a time and

keeps record of all the communication. Even a

small email downtime or data loss can have

severe implications on business operations.

To achieve the business continuity at the all

the time, all the components of email

infrastructure needs to be replicated. Also

one has to ensure that the backup

infrastructure is situated at a different

location and uses separate network to

connect to employee devices.

Multiple systems management

When IT team implement an individual

solution for each of the mentioned problem,

the corporate email infrastructure becomes

immensely complex as depicted in diagram.

A typical in-house email infrastructure

Multiple ancillary systems lead to multiple

purchase agreements, multiple licensing

schemes, multiple renewal dates and of

course multiple interfaces, configurations,

policies, reporting tools, patch schedules and

support contacts for your IT team to deal

with. The time it takes to deal with tasks

means that many companies devote the

majority of their IT budget to maintenance

rather than innovation.

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Conclusion

Cloud messaging solution

Current challenges of managing corporate

email can be eliminated if the mailing solution

is moved to cloud. In the cloud doesn’t mean

out of sight. Many advance cloud messaging

solutions available gives IT ream a complete

freedom to control and manage email setup

from administrative panels.

Often lack of security is the reason cited

against a cloud messaging solution. On closer

inspection, one would realise that renowned

cloud messaging service providers are more

equipped to handle day-zero virus outbreak,

disaster recovery, business continuity and

enforcing secure mail transactions. The

processes and policies for change

management and system access control which

are regularly audited by independent

auditors, gives advantage to cloud messaging

solution to eliminate possibility of data

getting into wrong hands.

Cloud messaging solution

While cloud email solution might appear to be

competition for an organization’s IT

department, the truth is cloud email solution

gives a leverage to IT team to focus on

innovative projects which can boost up the

organization’s productivity and profitability.

Hybrid setup

A hybrid email solution combines the best

of both on-premise and cloud email

solution. It gives businesses the

functionality users need without

overpaying for features they don't need.

One can have both systems working

seamlessly on the same domain. Some of

the benefits of hybrid solution are as

follows

Pay for what you use - In an on-premise

email solution, all features and services

are bundled together. Research shows

that most users require only basic email

functionality and advanced features are

used only by top executives. Therefore, if

the entire organization only uses an on-

premise email, IT managers will end up

paying for services and features that 80%

of the organization will not use. To shave

off unnecessary overheads, a hybrid email

solution is the best system.

Phased migration - IT managers

appreciate the value of a cloud email

solution but since they have already

invested in their email infrastructure,

they're hesitant to make a sudden switch.

In such cases, hybrid solution offers a

great value where an IT administrator can

migrate to a cloud mailing solution in

phases. This helps to ensure that the

disruptions are minimal and the transition

is smooth.