If you feel like you’re constantly being bombarded by emails and can never maintain an organized inbox, you’re not alone. The average office employee could receive over 100 emails a day, making it nearly impossible to stay on top of your most important messages. That urgent email you needed to reply to yesterday? Nowhere to be found. And that memo from your boss? Already lost in the clutter.
Keeping track of your inbox — and the volume of emails you or your organization sends and receives — can be overwhelming. But managing and organizing your email and inbox is crucial for information security, compliance, and efficiency. That’s where email archiving can help.
But what does archiving an email do, and why is it so important for security and compliance? In this article, we’ll discuss what email archiving is, how it works, and why it’s critical in maintaining optimal security and compliance for all kinds of businesses.
What is email archiving?
Email archiving is the term for storing and indexing email messages in a secure location. Archived emails are stored separately from your inbox but can still be accessed easily when needed.
In addition to just being able to search for and find emails easily, email archiving is especially important when it comes to regulatory compliance. In 2006, a law passed in the United States amending the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), mandating the archiving of emails for businesses. Following this law, every business needs to have a system where they can store and retrieve emails for legal purposes.
What does archiving an email do?
Email archiving moves an email from your inbox and stores it in an indexed system that you can access later. This can help organize your inbox, improve your server performance and store important messages for easy retrieval at a later time. That important email you’re still looking for a week later? With email archiving, you can easily search for said email and find it with a few clicks.
Why email archiving matters
Data preservation
Archived emails are stored in their original format, allowing companies to maintain a lengthy record of their employees’ communications, dating back years.
Storage optimization
By moving emails from mail servers to an archive, businesses can reduce storage costs and improve IT performance.
Disaster recovery
In the event of data loss or corruption, archived emails can be quickly restored.
Safeguard against tampering
Emails are important documents that can be used in legal cases and shouldn’t ever be manipulated. Email archiving ensures that messages can’t be erased, tampered with, or edited.
How email archiving enhances security
Securing sensitive information and data is a major concern for businesses. Email archiving keeps data safe by:
Providing secure storage
Using an email archive means that messages are kept in a write-once-read-many (WORM) database, which ensures that no one can edit, rewrite, or modify an email. Government agencies and other businesses and organizations typically use WORM archival systems to ensure data integrity and meet legal standards and regulations.
Implementing powerful controls
Email archive tools often include user access controls and permissions. Only authorized administrators can view or retrieve emails, protecting sensitive information from internal and external threats.
Encrypting at rest and in transit
Encryption inside email archive systems often happens at both rest and in transit, known as end-to-end-encryption (E2EE). This safeguards emails from interception and unauthorized access.
Monitoring and Auditing
Email archives often contain audit logs to track personnel who accessed data and when, which is essential for detecting suspicious activity and maintaining accountability.
The role of email archiving in compliance
Many industries are subject to strict regulations regarding data retention and privacy. Email archiving helps organizations comply with laws and regulations including The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), financial record keeping laws like The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and HIPAA.
Failing to meet compliance standards can lead to costly fines, damage to an individual or organization’s reputation, and even legal action. With email archiving, you can quickly locate and retrieve relevant emails for legal investigations or audits, and store important emails in a secure location to prevent deletion during ongoing legal cases.
Choosing the right email archiving system
Not all email archiving solutions are the same. When selecting a service for email archiving, you’ll need to consider:
- If you want cloud-based or on-premise email archiving
- What search functionality features you’ll require
- Any security certifications your organization needs
- The kind of regulatory compliance required for your business
- Ease of integration into the workplace
Email archiving with Proton
Email archiving is more than a convenient storage solution — it’s a critical part of your businesses’ security and compliance. With an archiving system in place, businesses can protect their data and sensitive information, adhere to important government regulations, and ensure they are prepared for audits, legal inquiries, and data breaches.
Proton Mail’s archive folder is a great way to keep a record of your critical conversations and attachments. By keeping them in a dedicated folder, you’re less likely to delete them and you can retrieve them with a simple archive search.
Proton allows you to be in control of your digital life with the strongest safeguards against cybercrime. Using end-to-end encryption, Proton Mail protects your data and identity, ensuring that your data is never bought and sold, and your private information stays private.
Ready to switch to a privacy-focused email provider? Sign up for Proton Mail today.
