5 Myths About Email

It is a well known yet largely ignored fact: email is far from safe. As business owners and consumers, we compromise our safety because of email’s ease and efficiency. As a result, we continue to put our privacy, security and even our identity at risk when we exchange sensitive information via email.

The Founders and developers behind the SenditCertified ePackage™ would like to take this opportunity to debunk some facts about email that have long been overlooked or worse, misunderstood. Here are five myths about email use:

1. When I hit send, my email goes directly to its intended recipient.

When you hit the send key, your message can "bounce" from node to node and server to server, multiple times before reaching the recipient (a recent test trace indicated 16 hits for one simple email). Each time your message interacts with one of these new computers and servers, a copy may be retained and stored there – this is referred to as ‘store and forward’ technology.

2. While my email is traveling thru the Internet, it is secure.

Despite best efforts and assurances by some vendors, the Internet is fraught with vulnerabilities. Should the content of your message be confidential, there is no guarantee that it will not be intercepted during its travels by one or many criminal elements, using literally hundreds of technology tools readily available on different Internet sites.

3. As long as I keep a copy of my original email and attachments, I will be in compliance with any request for e-disclosure.

More than 25% of current court cases require the re-production of specific email messages, and that percentage is increasing every year. The new regulations regarding email retention and reproduction are more complex than could ever be explained here. However, past court cases have proven that if a company can’t reproduce emails pertinent to a given case, in a time-frame dictated by the court, the court can assume the information contained therein must be unfavorable to the company’s position, and render an automatic guilty verdict against the company and its involved employees.

4. Anything my attorney and I communicate via email is covered by the attorney/client privilege.

The rules governing attorney/client privilege have been forced into review, specifically due to the advent of email. At this moment in time, a final judgment on the interpretation of the rule has not been issued. However, it has been ruled recently that because the Internet is ‘public’, any discussion or information communicated via email between an attorney and his/her client is not covered by the privilege.

5. I can delete email records as I see fit, even if they involve confidential company information.

Regulations on email retention are very specific and vary depending on the application and content of each email. For example, emails containing financial information may need to be kept for varying periods of time, from 3 – 7 years. Any company not enforcing a strict retention program on their employees, for each type of email, is leaving themselves open to damaging litigation.

It is clear that just as the Internet continues to grow and develop, so do email regulations; and this relatively new mode of communication is extremely vulnerable. The goal of a SenditCertified ePackage™ is to secure your communication and protect your business. The company’s goal is to provide simple access and ease of use with their new technology. They have created a solution that requires no software to load or maintain, while simultaneously providing the most secure transmission and highest level of encryption available. For more information visit: www.SenditCertified.com.