Email Attachment Management

Email is ubiquitous in today's corporate environment. Communication is simple and easy to use for most people, and as such, is often used not only for messages, but for sending files.

The first issue is the ability of an email system to actually send files – large files often clog an email server, increasing the demands on storage, bandwidth, and backups. If a file is too large, it may be rejected by the server. However, just because a large file made it through the sender's mail server is no guarantee that the recieving party's mail server will accept it.

The second major issue with email is its suitability for sending files – email was not designed for file transfer, document management, or any other file-based communication. Akin to sending a postcard in the mail, email messages and their attachments can be easily intercepted as it hops across multiple email servers to reach its final destination. This vulnerability is not acceptable for many types of data, including medical records, personally identifiable information, financial information, to name a few.

A third issue is the lack of tracking, reporting, and notification that a file was actually delivered and picked up by recipients. This lack of auditing can compromise certain reporting requirements, but just as importantly, it can lead to inefficiencies.

Sending files through BDS eliminates many of the issues related to email attachments – such as file size restrictions, file type restrictions, security, and reporting. BDS was designed from the ground up to handle file transfers, and incorporates security and tracking mechanisms in the core application, unlike other solutions that are bolted onto existing mail systems. BDS adds significant functionality to file deliveries, including encryption of the files, password protection, expiration, message embargoing, and file retraction after it has already been sent.

The Hidden Costs of Email

According to the Ponemon Institute's fourth annual U.S. Cost of a Data Breach Study released in February of 2009, data breach incidents cost U.S. companies $202 per compromised customer record in 2008, compared to $197 in 2007. Since the study's inception in 2005, this cost component has grown by more than $64 on a per victim basis, nearly a 40% increase. Using the cost per customer record figures above, a breach of only 50,000 customer names will cost an organization more than $10 million.

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Email attachment management comes with its own costs. A study by Osterman Research in 2008 found that 29% of all emails sent in a corporate environment contain attachments, and as a result, approximately 95% of the bandwidth used by email systems is accounted for by just the attachments. Equally as consuming and costly are the network storage costs associated with email attachments, on average costing organizations $52.98 per mailbox versus a much lower $17.32 per mailbox when using BDS.