Five Downsides of Encrypted Emails

There’s no denying that email is a convenient and effortless method for transmitting business data. With every member of your organization equipped with an email account, there’s no need for extensive training, and important documents can be sent and received easily from anywhere using your company’s mailing system. However, the convenience of email has led to its widespread use, with 347 billion messages traversing the internet each day in 2023. Unfortunately, the pervasiveness of email makes it an appealing target for cybercriminals. 

Considering this, let’s explore five reasons why email, even with encryption, is not the most secure option for exchanging sensitive data within your organization. 

Encrypted email can be vulnerable to hacking. 

Numerous studies have demonstrated that committed and knowledgeable cybercriminals can find ways to bypass or penetrate most organizations’ email encryption programs. Even Office 365’s encryption feature, touted for its security, can be easily hacked. While the technical details of the vulnerabilities are not critical here, you can find them in WithSecure’s report titled “Microsoft Office 365 Message Encryption — Insecure Mode of Operation” if you’re interested. 

The security of your emails depends on the encryption keys.

In 2020, hackers breached the email servers of the US Treasury Department, gaining access to the encrypted messages of high-ranking officials. Despite using advanced encryption protocols, the cybercriminals managed to decrypt and read the messages by stealing the email accounts’ encryption keys. You can invest significant time and resources in deploying the most sophisticated email encryption available, but if hackers can access any of those keys due to an employee’s failure to store them securely, it’s as if you’re handing over the plaintext versions of every message and attached file to the hackers. 

Encrypted messages can still be stolen. 

Even if your company sends an encrypted email, there’s no guarantee that the message will remain encrypted throughout its journey to the recipient’s inbox or while it rests on the recipient’s email server. Even Google, known for emphasizing the security and encryption features of its Gmail service for businesses, admits that unless both parties use the same encryption protocol, Gmail cannot ensure end-to-end encryption for transmitted emails. 

Encryption alone won’t block malware-infected emails. 

You won’t be able to prevent malicious emails containing ransomware or other harmful programs from infiltrating your company’s network unless you supplement your email encryption with other cybersecurity measures such as antimalware apps, firewalls, and employee training. Your encryption software will only encrypt the malware contained within the email. This creates an ironic situation in which your encryption program may prevent your malware detection app from detecting malicious emails and preventing them from reaching your employee’s computer. As a result, hackers could potentially gain access to your employee’s entire email inbox, potentially leading to a variety of disastrous scenarios, such as stealing decryption keys and then decrypting and pilfering all stored messages and attachments. 

Encryption doesn’t stop hackers’ preferred method: phishing. 

Phishing remains one of the most employed techniques for hackers to gain unauthorized access to organizational networks, enabling them to launch attacks like ransomware. As you know, employee error poses a significant threat to a company’s digital assets. Even if you implement an email encryption program, an employee who decrypts a message and acts upon its contents can inadvertently trigger malicious code embedded in a link or attachment. At that point, sophisticated hackers could gain access to decryption keys, initiate a ransomware attack that locks the entire company out of its networks and email programs, or simply steal encrypted emails and save the decryption keys for future use. 

While email offers convenience and ease of use, it’s essential to recognize its inherent vulnerabilities when it comes to securing sensitive or regulated data within your organization. 

Take cybersecurity seriously and partner with professionals to protect your digital assets. Molnii is here to assist you in safeguarding your IT infrastructure and preventing hackers from interfering with your operations. Contact us to learn more!