You are sitting at your desk. You need to share information with a colleague one floor up from your office. Do you pick up the phone, or do you send an e-mail? Most likely, you send an e-mail. What would we do without this super convenient form of communication? It is hard to remember how we functioned without it.
Use of e-mail is so common that it is easy to forget how unsecure it is. Sure, it is fine to use e-mail for conversations about your dog’s latest antics. Should you send confidential information, though? Not unless the e-mail is secure.
A few months ago, we implemented an encrypted e-mail system, smarshEncrypt. Some of you may have received encrypted e-mails from us and setup logins through Smarsh.
We use the encrypted system to transmit personal information such as account statements. If you have a login setup with Smarsh, you can view the e-mail and reply to us in a secure forum. This is extremely helpful whenever you need to send us copies of statements or other sensitive data.
Unfortunately, you cannot use this service to send e-mails to other individuals. We encourage you to be extra careful in your e-mail communications. Never e-mail someone data that you would not want the whole world to see, unless you know for certain the e-mail is encrypted. As Benjamin Franklin said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
Cristy Freeman, AAMS
Senior Operations Associate
P.S. Here’s a suggestion if you have difficulties receiving encrypted messages: Check your spam or junk folder. A few clients found messages sitting in those types of folders.
