The evaluation of Edward Snowden’s documents still bring new information about the scale of the NSA scandal to light. According to a report from the New York Times from the 15th August, the US telephone provider AT&T helped the NSA spy on internet traffic in a form which was described by the NSA itself as being “a partnership, not a contractual relationship”. Most recently 60 million emails were forwarded illegally to the NSA every day even though they were not explicitly requested by the NSA.
Snowden’s documents only go to 2013. Since then it has to be assumed that the spying capabilities of the NSA and other agencies have been significantly extended. Thanks to the technical advances in “Big Data” it is not only possible to collect unimaginable amounts of data but to analyze and evaluate it. It is common knowledge that the data is not only used for counterterrorism but also for industrial spying.
The public indignation however seems to decrease with every new revelation. But within the corporate world it’s a different story. The Berlin based email encryption specialist Zertificon experiences a clear rise in interest with each new NSA revelation.
“Every detail of the NSA scandal is a wake up call for the project managers. Many organizations want to have encryption solutions in place but never got round to it. It’s common knowledge that emails are about as secure as postcards, and put simply, nobody wants to be the person hung out to dry when the competition gets hold of secret commercially sensitive emails.” according to Nikolina Baborac from Zertificon’s sales team.
Email security projects were often put on hold for practical reasons such as the complex installation, administration and operation. But these reasons are no longer valid today. Company wide email encryption with the mature and field-proven Z1 SecureMail Gateway from Zertificon is just as efficient and simple as a standard email solution. The gateway can be installed and integrated into standard IT infrastructures in just a couple of hours. Employees do not require any special software or training and it is possible to exchange encrypted emails with any recipient – even individuals who do not use any encryption software. Furthermore, email signatures can be centrally applied and evaluated. The counterfeiting protection offered by email signatures provides a high level of integrity and security. Alongside the protection against cyber and industrial spying, the investment in a gateway delivers compliance conformity and is an effective protection against phishing attacks.
Further details can be found at: www.zertificon.com.
