Sending confidential and large email attachments

It is apparent that companies have re-evaluated the value of their electronic correspondence, especially in recent months, under the impact of the PRISM & Co. spying scandals. But the efficiency of e-mail processes also remains in focus.

Problem 1: Size limitations

Whether contracts, technical drawings, calculations or other important documents in the exchange with customers, suppliers and partners: Every day, numerous file attachments are sent by e-mail in companies. Depending on the formats and elements they contain - such as images or multimedia content - they are becoming increasingly large in terms of file size. However, as the number of megabytes increases, problems may arise during the delivery of an e-mail. This is because many mail servers have size restrictions. This means that they only allow those e-mails to pass whose file attachments do not exceed a certain total size. All other e-mails are rejected and do not reach their recipients. Instead, the sender usually receives an automatically generated undeliverability notification informing him that his e-mail could not be delivered to the communication partner due to the size of its file attachment. In most cases, even compressing the files alone no longer helps to avoid such size restrictions. Basically, image formats or other already compressed contents in particular do not experience any space savings by being converted to Zip format. In addition, before sending an e-mail, the user rarely knows the exact file size restrictions of the recipient's e-mail server. In such cases, the only option is to pick up the phone and ask the recipient to name an alternative e-mail address whose mailbox allows the receipt of large file attachments. Alternatively, the size restriction can be circumvented by manually uploading the relevant files to the company's own server and offering them to the recipient for download via a transmitted link or FTP access data.

Problem 2: Executable applications

But the size limitation is not the only problem when sending file attachments. For example, if executable applications are sent as e-mail attachments, they are usually also blocked for security reasons. This particularly affects file formats such as *.exe and *.pif. Finally, executable applications in e-mail attachments are regarded as carriers of viruses and Trojans, against which companies try to protect themselves by making appropriate settings on their e-mail servers.

Problem 3: Leakage of confidential data

File attachments sent by e-mail are often not encrypted. They can be intercepted and openly viewed by third parties. It is not necessarily always intelligence services that companies have to fear in this context. Economic competitors, especially from Asia, actively engage in industrial espionage. They are interested in particularly sensitive information. For years now, security authorities have been warning of increasing industrial espionage on the Internet. Both medium-sized companies and large corporations are feeling the pinch of the hunt for technological know-how. Companies should therefore also protect themselves when sending file attachments in order to effectively prevent the leakage of their confidential data in e-mail traffic.

Practicability decisive

To cope with these problems, viable solutions are needed: There are already some systems on the market that address these issues, but they are not always efficient. For example, there are separate, stand-alone island solutions. After previously uploading the file, specifying the sender and recipient, and a short description, the recipient can download the file via a download link. However, this process often proves too time-consuming and requires leaving the e-mail client.

Another disadvantage: Sent files are no longer listed among the sent e-mails. This makes it much more difficult to track the communication process. There are also applications where, when sending a larger file attachment to customers, suppliers or partners, a separate FTP access for the download has to be provided each time in a cumbersome manner.

Highly automate file shipping

New cloud-based solutions are making their way into companies and presenting themselves as an alternative. They provide the necessary security for sending confidential and large e-mail attachments without compromising the efficiency or traceability of e-mail processes. They can be easily and seamlessly integrated into existing e-mail infrastructures and work automatically in the background according to a fixed set of rules. If the user sends file attachments by e-mail that are larger than 10 MB, for example, the server-side solution reacts automatically and separates the files from the e-mail. Instead, the file itself is made available for the mail recipient to download in a highly secure cloud area. After clicking on the link and logging into the cloud area, the recipient can download the attachment. Incidentally, unlike services such as Dropbox, the cloud provider itself has no access to the available files.

Conclusion

Solutions that work according to such a scheme to secure the sending of large and confidential files by e-mail automate a process that would be almost impossible for the user to perform manually. At the same time, the confidentiality of the transmitted attachments is increased. The user does not have to leave the familiar working environment of the e-mail client. He simply continues to write his e-mails as before and simply adds oversized file attachments. In this way, companies bring more legal certainty, confidentiality and security to file transmission via e-mail - without having to accept any losses in efficiency and productivity.