It seems like email-related hacking stories are a dime a dozen these days. One of the biggest instances to happen in recent months has undoubtedly been the attack on Sony Pictures. Untold volumes of sensitive information – including email messages – were leaked in a massive example of cyberterrorism. But data wasn't the only thing that the company lost. The ability to send and receive emails was also disabled, according to Business Insider contributor James Cook.
One of the ways that professionals at Sony are handling this is by using fax machines. But while faxing via traditional means can be time consuming and inconvenient, Sony's leveraging of the channel in an emergency speaks volumes about its security. Sony probably doesn't want to be taking any chances, meaning that any platform it chooses to use in the interim must be secure in nature.
Part of a larger concern
The role that email has played in Sony's trouble illustrates just how ineffective the channel is. Email is not only lacking in security, but the way that inboxes are generally set up can cause significant stumbling blocks in a professional's daily communications. According to CloudTweaks contributor Steven Prentice, email can even cause psychological strain – something that's never good for productivity.
"Most people think an email comes and goes pretty quickly. It arrives, you read it, you answer it, and you move on," Prentice wrote. "But in truth, each email comes with a time-consuming and expensive tail. In brief, the reason for this is that email represents an unknown entity that enters a person's field of view and takes their nervous system by surprise. Although that may sound like an overstatement, the fact is the human nervous system reacts to every unknown as a threat, and consequently circles the wagons against possible attack. It's an autonomic reflex."
This is one of the reasons that businesses need to have online fax in place. This kind of solution is an effective way to share critical documents without risking their exposure. Taking fax technology and streamlining it in an IP environment enables professionals to save time and stress when trying to send and receive files.
Enhance enterprise communication, collaboration and compliance efforts with a proven FoIP solution from FaxCore. Contact FaxCore today to learn more about their 'Partly-Cloudy' fax solutions.
