In this day and age with all the many forms of technology and avenues of communication, it is more important than ever to take additional measures to keep sensitive information protected. Particularly when sending private company details via email, business groups can follow a few simple tips that can ensure their sensitive information is safe and secure at all times.

Here are 3 tips you can utilize now to help ensure the protection of your email data:

1. Blocking Emails

Blocking emails was never easier as now with the Office 365 software comes a built-in email protection to meet your company business needs. First off, this service enables you to manage your accounts and filter out all of those unwanted spam messages. Additionally, this feature can be easily modified so that you can personalize your own ‘allow or block’ list.

Just as many other email platforms have you mark an item as junk and then redirect it from your inbox to your junk or spam folder – the Office 365 function makes it possible to allocate an entire domain as blocked. If you and your co-workers are finding that your email inboxes are being invaded by spam and unwanted mail – this can be a method of ‘cleaning’ it up as well as taking precautions against dangerous spam emails and links.

To top it off, it is equally important to ensure that the right emails get to the right person, and as result, designating which emails are on the ‘allowed’ list can mean that the important information arrives safely and falls into the correct hands as well.

2. Data Loss Prevention

Another tip that can provide additional data security is the Data Loss Protection feature in Office 365. The Data Loss Protection feature can assist by keeping a close watch on all email communications in order to ensure that sensitive information is not being lost along the way.

Through Office 365, these policy parameters have been put in place and resemble important data loss prevention steps, such as scanning all emails that may include any instances where data such as credit card numbers, Social Insurance/Security Numbers, and Passport Numbers for example could be stolen.

While Office 365 has embedded this feature into its program, it is the employees themselves that are required to take the necessary action that will see this potential risk being addressed. For example, individuals may opt to copy their manager with this flagged email, warn the employees of this situation – or simply choose not to send the email after all.

3. Encrypting the Message

With that being said, there are times when personal and sensitive details will need to be sent via email- and therefore, the best solution may be to encrypt the email message before sending it. If it is necessary for you to send confidential data through your email system – there are encryption programs that can be enlisted to ensure the safety of the information. Office 365 also comes with message encryption features, which can be upgraded to higher security levels.

This encryption program lets users encrypt their outgoing emails, whether it’s an email that is intended for a recipient within their company or to someone in an outside organization. It is then very simple for email recipients to view these encryption messages and also reply using the same protective measures.

In reality, when it comes to highly sensitive data being sent over the internet, you can never be too careful. With internet lurkers circling around waiting to snatch up an account number here or a password number there – keeping your private business information safe and secure should be a top priority. By doing so through using your common sense and the tools Office 365 provides, businesses can then function with more confidence and peace of mind.