Securing email and the challenge of archiving

For several years now, e-mail has been a very popular means of communication, especially in the business world. It has even gone beyond paper media in the company, to save on transmission time and costs. According to a survey carried out by the Radicali group, the average employee sends around 38 emails a day and receives around 93 . With so many e-mails circulating around the company every year, the best solution for preserving electronic data without altering it is electronic archiving.

Securing emails before archiving

The use of e-mail requires a great deal of attention, as it is the best point of entry for attacks, viruses and spam into the company’s IT structure. Only by updating security software, implementing an effective filtering policy and properly managing attachments can companies protect themselves against cyber-attacks. Hosting e-mails in a secure environment equipped with anti-virus and anti-spam filters enables companies to optimize e-mail usage.

Electronic archiving in practice

According to a survey carried out by an electronic data archiving professional, instructions on email retention do not reach 75% of employees. In addition, over 35% of employees do not strictly comply with email legality and compliance requirements. Nearly 41% of employees do not consider it useful to store email attachments in a secure place, and leave them attached, clogging up the company’s mail server.

Electronic archiving in France

In France, the electronic archiving market is not yet large. And yet, more than 80% of all communication today is electronic and computerized. In 2010, less than 10% of French companies adopted an electronic archiving system. Yet 90% of multinationals based in Europe have a high-performance archiving solution.

In France, regulations on electronic archiving are not yet very explicit, even though electronic documents have the same legal value as paper documents. French companies are not obliged to retain electronic documents.

The advantages and disadvantages of electronic archiving

Electronic archiving brings a number of advantages, but also a few disadvantages. One advantage is the time saved in searching for and disseminating information. In terms of cost, electronic archiving is less expensive than paper filing. With this storage system, it’s easier to control access to company data, making archives more reliable and secure.

Adopting electronic archiving requires a clean, well-ventilated environment, so that the physical media used to store the company’s archives cannot deteriorate: CD-ROMs, hard disks, Blu-ray discs, etc. For companies using a professional archiving service, the system becomes network-dependent.

The use of ALTOSPAM simplifies the implementation of an archiving system by filtering out unwanted emails and doubling the mail flow. For further details, please contact us here.