Email Protection Gateway (EPG): Securing Email While Making Encryption Invisible to End-users

The digital age has revolutionized the way we communicate and share information. Email communication is one of the most widely used modes of communication in the business world. However, as much as email communication is convenient, it also poses a significant risk to the confidentiality and security of sensitive information and private data. This glossary outlines what an Email Protection Gateway entails, and how it protects sensitive content communications.

Introduction to Email Protection Gateway (EPG)

The Email Protection Gateway (EPG) is a powerful security solution through which sensitive data is sent. This technology offers end-to-end encryption, eliminating the possibility of a data breach. Additionally, the Email Protection Gateway helps organizations to gain visibility into their sensitive communications and automate protection processes for outgoing emails containing sensitive information. It does this by providing secure gateways for externally facing emails and providing users with a secure and compliant way to send and receive sensitive information.

As a cloud-based solution, an EPG can be deployed quickly and easily. It can be integrated with existing on-premises infrastructure, ensuring that any sensitive data sent over email remains secure and in compliance with current security regulations. Users can have the ability to control who has access to their sensitive emails, as well as set up notifications when an email is read. This ensures that organizations are as secure as possible when communicating with external parties.

Benefits of Using Email Protection Gateway

An EPG is an invaluable form of security for individuals and businesses that utilize emails daily. EPG provides a secure gateway for encrypted emails that are sent and received by users. With a powerful encryption system in place, the possibility of emails being intercepted or accessed by unauthorized persons is severely diminished, if not eliminated. Some of the benefits of using EPG include:

• Advanced encryption technologies to secure sensitive information
• Enables compliance with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)
• Data loss prevention (DLP) and server scanning of attachments to prevent data loss
• Antivirus integration to protect against malware
• Automates protection and expands visibility of sensitive email

Importance of Email Encryption

The importance of email encryption with the Email Protection Gateway cannot be overstated. EPG provides a much-needed layer of security to protect sensitive emails and their contents. With the prevalence of cybersecurity threats, the need for secure email encryption is essential. EPG enables users to easily encrypt their data, ensuring that their emails remain secure and confidential.

EPG simplifies the encryption process, allowing users to easily send and receive encrypted emails. By leveraging EPG’s encryption algorithm, sensitive data is protected in transit and at rest, preventing attackers from accessing sensitive emails. EPG also allows users to quickly set up encryption policies, giving them the flexibility to determine who can send and receive encrypted emails.

Moreover, EPG provides visibility and control over outbound emails, allowing users to track the threat status of emails and protect sensitive data from accidental sharing or disclosure. EPG also automates the encryption process, ensuring that all sensitive emails are encrypted, eliminating the need for manual encryption processes. With EPG, users can quickly and easily encrypt their data, reducing the risk of data breaches and ensuring the highest level of security.

EPG provides a comprehensive approach to protecting sensitive emails, simplifying and automating the encryption process, and protecting data both in transit and at rest. By leveraging EPG’s encryption capabilities, users can rest assured that their email communications are secure and confidential. EPG is an essential tool for protecting email communications, and all organizations should ensure that they are leveraging its encryption capabilities.

Email Protection Gateway and Automated Encryption

The Email Protection Gateway is a trusted solution that provides secure encryption and control of emails and attachments. It is designed to detect and alert to any suspicious activity within emails, such as phishing attempts, malicious content, and data leaks. The gateway also delivers compliance protection, with visibility over sensitive information, including personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), and other data. It also offers an additional layer of encryption for emails that have already been sent, providing no-hassle protection that further prevents data leakage. The gateway also verifies recipients, ensuring emails are only sent to the intended recipient.

Automated encryption is a powerful security feature that adds an additional layer of protection to emails and attachments. With automated encryption, emails and attachments are encrypted before they are ever sent, ensuring only authorized personnel can access the content. This provides peace of mind to users, as they know their sensitive data will remain confidential and secure. Automated encryption also supports compliance with various security requirements, such as GDPR and HIPAA, by ensuring data is properly safeguarded. Automated encryption also ensures emails remain secure while in transit, protecting against hackers, malware, and other malicious threats.

How Automated Encryption Delivers Improved Privacy Protection

Automated encryption delivers improved privacy protection by securing digital information and enabling data to be safely and securely shared. This encryption is based on predetermined rules and definitions that control data flow, making it a highly effective way to protect sensitive information. With automated encryption, users are provided with a set of parameters that manage who can access, use, and share the information. Encryption also allows communication to be transmitted over secure and encrypted channels, ensuring that the intended recipient is the only one with the ability to view and access the content.

The Email Protection Gateway provides an additional layer of protection by automatically scanning emails and attachments for sensitive information. This ensures that any sensitive data is encrypted before being sent to the recipient, preventing unauthorized individuals from accessing the information. In addition, advanced analytics and machine learning are used to detect and block malicious emails, protecting both the sender and receiver from malicious actors.

Automated encryption also allows organizations to monitor and track email activity, ensuring that all data is properly marked, classified, and tracked. This helps ensure that all confidential information is managed and secured, and it also provides organizations with the ability to audit and review activities related to their data. With automated encryption, organizations can develop granular security policies and controls that are tailored to their specific needs.

In addition, automated encryption enables organizations to share confidential data and messages across a variety of platforms and formats, including email, text, and cloud-based systems. This helps increase collaboration and communication, while also providing a secure pathway for information to be transmitted. Automated encryption also ensures that messages are stored securely, and any unauthorized access attempts are blocked.

Overall, automated encryption delivers improved privacy protection by providing organizations with a secure and reliable way to share data while also protecting sensitive information. This increased security provides organizations with the assurance that their data will be secure and that any unauthorized access attempts will be stopped. Automated encryption gives organizations greater visibility into their data, allowing them to monitor and track activity. This helps ensure that all confidential information is secure, providing organizations with the ability to audit and review activities related to their data.

3 Email Security Tips to Secure Messages Sent via Mail Transfer Protocols

An Email Protection Gateway (EPG) is essential for safeguarding sensitive information transmitted through email. Organizations can prevent unauthorized access, data breaches, and phishing attacks by employing robust security measures. The following tips outline essential strategies to enhance email security and protect messages sent via mail transfer protocols.

Email Security Tip 1: Utilize Transport Layer Security (TLS) Encryption

To secure messages sent via mail transfer protocols, use Transport Layer Security encryption. TLS encrypts data exchanged between a mail server and a client, ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of transmitted messages. This prevents unauthorized access and tampering while making encryption invisible to end-users.

Email Security Tip 2: Implement Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC)

Implement Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance to verify sender authenticity and protect against email spoofing. DMARC combines SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) to authenticate the sender’s domain and ensure the email’s integrity. This improves email deliverability and prevents phishing attacks.

Email Security Tip 3: Enable Secure Password Authentication

Enable secure password authentication (SPA) for your mail server to protect user credentials during the login process. SPA requires users to provide a valid username and password to access their email accounts, preventing unauthorized individuals from intercepting sensitive information. This security measure complements TLS and DMARC, strengthening the security of messages sent via mail transfer protocols.

Best Email Security Practices

Implementing top email security practices is crucial for safeguarding sensitive information and maintaining user privacy. Key strategies include using strong, unique passwords, enabling multi-factor authentication, regularly updating software and security patches, training employees to identify phishing attempts, and employing robust email security solutions, such as an Email Protection Gateway, that offers encryption, spam filtering, and virus protection.

By adopting these measures, organizations can effectively mitigate risks associated with email-based cyberattacks and protect their digital assets.

Compliance With Regulations

Regulatory compliance is a critical requirement for any organization to maintain security and protect sensitive data. EPG ensures organizations meet regulatory and data protection compliance by automatically encrypting emails containing sensitive information. By setting policies for encryption or redaction, EPG lets organizations protect data in transit and at rest, increasing security and reducing the chance of data breaches and loss. EPG can be used to monitor for compliance with email data policies and create an audit trail of all emails, making it easier to demonstrate compliance and identify any potential lapses. With EPG, organizations can ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

EPG enables secure remote collaboration without the complexity of configuring secure web links and complicated email encryption protocols, allowing organizations to remain compliant without sacrificing user experience. With EPG, organizations can easily protect all emails, even those that have been previously sent. This advanced level of visibility and protection helps organizations remain compliant with the current federal, state, and international regulations and requirements.

Kiteworks Email Protection Gateway

The Kiteworks Email Protection Gateway is part of the Kiteworks Private Content Network. With Kiteworks EPG, organizations can easily automate email encryption with the Email Protection Gateway (EPG). Kiteworks EPG provides enterprise-grade encryption and uniform security controls. Administrators can employ policy-based encryption that eliminates user steps and mistakes and automate decisions of whether or not to encrypt each email.

Kiteworks EPG provides strict end-to-end email encryption—from sending client to receiving client—and private decryption keys stay in receiving client (no server-side vendors or attackers can decrypt). The automation of email encryption occurs with internal users as well as with third parties.

Unified audit logs feed into the Kiteworks Private Content Network and can be viewed within the CISO Dashboard or fed into an organization’s security information and event management (SIEM) system used by the security operations center (SOC) team. This unified audit trail delivers consolidated reporting required to demonstrate compliance with various security and data privacy regulations.

To see the Kiteworks Email Protection Gateway in action, schedule a custom demo today.

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