You may be thinking, “who faxes anything anymore?” But, the truth is email hasn’t entirely conquered all forms of communication.
There are nearly 100 billion faxes sent across the world each year, which means there are 100 billion different ways criminals can take advantage of your business’ sensitive information via fax. So, why aren’t people more cautious when faxing information?
Well, since the insecurity of email has taken the headlines by storm — and cybersecurity vulnerabilities in general — with data breaches and email scandals, the facsimile machine has taken a backseat to the more modern form of communication. But, just because faxing hasn’t been thrust into the spotlight doesn’t mean it’s safe either.
When a person sends a sensitive message via fax, there are THREE major issues that arise:
- Faxing is not always federally compliant when the environment the fax machine is located in is not controlled
- The sender has no control of who handles the fax (public office room vs. restricted access area)
- There’s a lack of nonrepudiation, as there exists no documentation of who sees or receives the message
Let’s say you’re needing to send your own private health records to a new healthcare provider you’ve just signed on with.
Instead of email, you choose to send via fax … but, you’re unaware that the fax machine within the provider’s administrative offices rests out in the open. With it being located in a public area, you just potentially jeopardized your social security number, health care number, name, date of birth, address, and any other identifying pieces of information (also known as PHI — Protected Health Information). And unbeknownst to you, within a matter of minutes your entire identity may be compromised … All because of a single fax. Whoa!
Now, healthcare providers and health insurance organizations have been targeted and significantly afflicted by cybercriminals within the past year, and are just being used as one example, but, honestly, they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Any and every company that fails to comply with compliance standards and integrate a security solution is putting both the business’ and their clients’ (and employees’) information at risk. But, why risk it?
In this day and age, there are a plethora of affordable secure solutions available for businesses of all sizes. It doesn’t matter if you’re a sole-proprietor or a worldwide corporation, sensitive information is sensitive information — it needs to be protected. We all know even the largest of companies (Sony Pictures) can get burned … That’s never a pretty sight.
And remember, just because you may not be the biggest company doesn’t necessarily mean your breach risk is any lower.
With a secure email solution, you’ll not only be federally compliant (HIPAA | SOX | GLBA | FINRA) when sending confidential documents (especially those containing PII — Personally Identifiable Information), but a level of nonrepudiation will exist when the information is accessed, giving you the assurance that your document is only being received and opened by the intended recipient.
For example, with a secure email solution like our NeoCertified solution, all documents and messages are protected both in transit and at rest, and all recipients are required to sign in to NeoCertified to access your message. There’s also a digital signature and timestamp found within the message to give you complete control over who has and hasn’t read your message. You even have the option of enabling read-receipt notifications, which inform you exactly when your message was first opened.
So, now you might be wondering, “how does this translate to helping me fax sensitive documents?”
Well, you’d go about sending the document in a manner similar to fax, except this time the document would be sent securely via NeoCertified:
- Simply scan the document (just as you would to fax the document)
- Compose your message in Outlook or through our NeoCertified secure portal
- Attach the scanned document file
Now, all you have to do is click “Send NeoCertified”. Your message will be encrypted and protected at all times.
Faxing is certainly one of the more hazardous ways to communicate, and it can be easily avoided with a process like secure email.
Don’t risk jeopardizing your entire business over a fax machine because secure email seemed too complex. A solution like NeoCertified integrates directly with Microsoft Outlook and only takes a matter of minutes to set up. You’re literally one click away from sending your documents securely.
Email — 1 Fax — 0
Peter J. Schaub
President & CEO, NeoCertified
