Encryption is one of those words whose perceived meaning is something different to actual meaning. When we say the word encryption, we immediately think of spies, James Bond, the CIA or NSA. Encryption is merely a mathematical method of obfuscating information so only the intended audience can read it. Email encryption is exactly the same. It’s a way of protecting the contents of email so nobody but the intended recipient can read them.
Businesses who encrypt their emails don’t necessarily have anything to hide, or are up to no good. Most often they just want to protect commercially sensitive or proprietary information from the competition, or prevent data leakage. In a savagely competitive business world, we all have to take every advantage we can get, and protect ourselves as much as possible from those trying to take advantage at our expense. Email encryption used to be voluntary, you didn’t have to do it. If your emails didn’t contain company secrets or sensitive data then there was no need for encryption.
Since the overhaul of legislation governing businesses, especially laws like the HIPAA, anybody who has any exposure to medical or financial data has to encrypt their emails. The HIPAA security rule specifically mentions email encryption as mandatory for anyone who comes into contact with PHI or financial data. The protection of data is now a big noise in business, both internally and federally. Fortunately, most email encryption goes on without the user having the slightest notion of it.
Most newer email encryption is performed at the server. The user at their email client has no idea their emails are being encrypted unless their system either informs them or requires them to participate in the process. The majority of encryption is done at the server level before it leaves the network. If the mail is internal, the mail is still encrypted and sent to the recipient where their client with decrypt the message for them. External mails are encrypted and sent with a public key which the receiving mail server can use to decrypt the email. The most secure encryption systems are those that require the sender and recipient to manually decrypt the data by entering a key by hand. This allows them both to retain full control over what happens to their data while it’s being shared.
The mechanics of encryption is hugely complicated, but based on a very simple idea. The actual data is replaced with other data in a specific pattern. The software knows this pattern and provides a key for the recipient to be able to decode this pattern. Using the right key on the right piece of data allows the system to decode the email. With the industry standard 128-bit encryption, there is a staggering 339,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 2128 possible combinations for the key. While it isn’t foolproof, this kind of security will prevent all but the most determined, or technologically superior hacker from accessing the data.
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