Does Typing the Word "Secure" in The Subject Line Encrypt Your Email?
If you Googled anything about how to protect the sensitive information your organization works with, it wouldn’t take long before you come across encryption as a recommendation.
As a result, organizations of all sizes have no choice but to pour money into ways to protect their most valuable asset’s (customers) data. If they don’t they risk hemorrhaging revenue due to a loss in trust and fines from the government.
It's great that it works so well, but how do you use it to your advantage? More importantly, is there a way to encrypt the emails you send out?
But, is activating encryption as easy as typing the word “secure” in the subject line of your email?
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The answer to the question involved with this video is it could...but it depends. Let me explain.
Most individual email accounts don’t natively use encryption. Yet, the majority of popular email providers offer a paid service that encrypts your team's electronic messages.
This price table is for Gmail Enterprise. The top-selling point across all tiers is that it provides “Custom and secure business email”.
Although generic-sounding, further research confirms that Gmail Enterprise provides the ability to encrypt all the emails from your organization via S/MIME encryption.
But Google isn’t the only organization to offer encrypted emailing capabilities. Microsoft 365 does too.
So, now that we know that encryption is often offered as a paid service by email providers, where does typing “secure” come into play?
Certain encryption methods are more secure than others.
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is the standard, yet it only secures the message, not any additional data that’s included or attached in an email.
End-to-end is a step above TLS message encryption as it encrypts both the message and the data by requiring the recipient to decode attached data using a private key.
Of course, every organization that handles sensitive information wants to use end-to-end encryption. If you have an option to choose the best, you’re going to do it. But end-to-end encryption usually comes at a higher price point than the standard, or TLS.
As a result, the organizations that purchase end-to-end encryption services from a cybersecurity vendor are usually charged by volume.
To ensure that it’s not overcharged for using end-to-end for every message, most organizations work with their vendors to implement a keyword that triggers a higher level of encryption for a message.
Usually, that trigger is providing the word “secure” in the subject line.
So, how do you know if your email is secure?
The point I tried making in the section before was that typing the word “secure” in an email might encrypt your message. However, it depends on whether or not your organization has a vendor that provides encryption and if that’s the subject line trigger.
If you don’t have an encryption vendor, typing “secure” won’t provide any additional protection to what you’re sending. If you do, typing “secure” might not be the right word to signify the need for added security.
In any case, before you send anything that has the potential to cause a cybersecurity breach, talk to your IT department first.
In the meantime, a best practice is to assume that your email communications aren’t secure. That way you and your team understand the line between what they can and cannot send among each other and outside of your organization.
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