Legal discovery must often span years of background research and data collection. Fulfilling legal obligations means that enterprise organizations require a retention strategy. Email archiving takes copies and backs up data for years, securing it from malicious threat actors. It’s essential to note that email archiving functions differently from standard backup files. A good email archiving solution stores files in a way that makes it convenient and fast for legal professionals to find the information they need for legal discovery and proceedings. Importantly, an email archiving and compliance solution must utilize robust security measures and maintain privacy to meet regulatory requirements.
Compliance regulations such as HIPAA, FRCP, FINRA, and SOX have email retention policies for legal professionals, depending on the industry of their clients. For example, if you represent healthcare professionals and store PHI (Personal Health Information), HIPAA requires that data be retained for a minimum of six years, including data found in emails.
TitanHQ offers an email archiving solution designed for legal professionals who store sensitive client data. Our solution adheres to compliance regulations and provides attorneys and other legal entities with access to files for years. Archived files are indexed and managed by the TitanHQ solution; files are tamperproof and secure. Fast and secure legal research into archived email data is a crucial factor in regulatory compliance. Authorized users can search, save, and tag email conversations, saving hours in the discovery process.
What is Email Archiving Used For?
Email archiving and backup are different. An email backup is a snapshot of all email data at a specific point in time. It is designed to restore data in the event of loss. An email archive is a continuously updated, long-term repository that securely stores and preserves email communications for compliance, legal, or organizational purposes. Email Archiving solutions place indexes on files, making searches faster for discovery and investigations. The system allows administrators to set security controls on data to limit who can access email archives, but it also provides tools to organize and tag files for future use.
What is compliant email archiving, and how can it benefit businesses looking for an alternative solution?
Compliant email archiving solutions are designed to help an organization adhere to data protection regulations and laws. Most companies are required to comply with security or privacy protection regulations. Data that is part of an email message or attachment is considered to be covered by these regulations. Therefore, when evaluating an email archiving solution, companies should select a compliant one. These compliance solutions help to ensure the company adheres to the stringent requirements of data protection and privacy regulations, including FINRA, HIPAA, and GDPR.
Which types of businesses benefit most from compliant email archiving?
Any business subject to one or more data protection and financial sector regulations should utilize a compliant email archiving solution. These types of sectors that benefit from compliant email archiving solutions include healthcare, legal, law enforcement, and government.
Does compliant email archiving integrate easily with Office 365, Google Workspace, or other email platforms?
Compliant email archiving solutions should integrate deeply with email platforms, such as Office 365 and Google Workspace. Integration with these email platforms automates the archive process, removing any chance of human error. This ensures that the email and attachment record are accurate and up-to-date.
What makes email archiving for healthcare different from traditional email storage or backups?
Traditional email storage and backup for healthcare are short- to medium-term storage solutions. They are used for disaster recovery, such as after a ransomware infection. Email archiving for healthcare is used to maintain and retain all email communication records as required by regulations such as HIPAA. Storage is long-term, and the search and retrieval capabilities are granular and fast. Email archiving for healthcare solutions is designed to be secure and compliant with relevant privacy regulations.
How does email archiving for healthcare compare with other leading email archiving providers in features and pricing?
ArcTitan email archiving for healthcare is a cost-effective, cloud-based service. By utilizing a scalable cloud delivery model, a healthcare organization can ensure that it pays only for the storage it actually needs. ArcTitan email archiving for healthcare offers unlimited storage, allowing organic growth. The solution does not charge for additional retrieval services. ArcTitan can be delivered by an MSP on a subscription basis.
How scalable is email archiving for healthcare for growing businesses or enterprises?
ArcTitan email archiving for healthcare is a cloud-based solution that scales with an organization. Unlimited storage keeps costs down.
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Finding a Retention Plan and Email Archiving Strategy for Legal Compliance
IT professionals working with legal professionals are aware of the importance of backups, but they often overlook the importance of email archives and retention plans. Audit trails and backups are compliance requirements, but a retention plan is frequently a business standard specific to the industry. In the legal profession, retention plans are usually lengthy to ensure that a trail of communications is available for years. eDiscovery is a crucial component of an effective email archiving strategy.
What makes archiving and compliance solutions different from traditional email storage or backups?
Archiving and compliance solutions provide long-term retention capabilities, enabling companies to store archived emails in accordance with regulations. Email storage and backup, however, provide email storage for short-to-medium-term periods to facilitate data restoration after a disaster. Additionally, archiving and compliance solutions are designed for fast and accurate eDiscovery.
How easy is it to migrate to archiving and compliance solutions from another archiving system?
Archiving and compliance solutions are cloud-based services that are designed to make migration from another archiving system fast and straightforward. However, migration from one archiving system to another must be viewed as a process. When selecting a solution, consider archiving and compliance solutions that provide unlimited storage and support for a wide range of file formats.
How scalable are archiving and compliance solutions for growing businesses or enterprises?
Archiving and compliance solutions are cloud-based services. As such, the archiving is highly scalable and will grow as the business expands. Archiving and compliance solutions should be deeply integrated with email platforms, such as Google Workspace and Office 365, to automate the archive process. This ensures that human error is eliminated during the archiving process. Archiving and compliance solutions can be delivered by an MSP that handles the deployment, maintenance, and management of the email archive.
Why do companies choose email archiving eDiscovery when evaluating email archiving options?
Email archiving and eDiscovery are essential elements of any compliant email archiving solution. eDiscovery is the process by which an organization can find specific email communications and associated attachments. Calendars can also be part of the discovery process. eDiscovery provides an interface used to identify and retrieve electronically stored information (ESI), which is then utilized in compliance reporting or legal cases. eDiscovery should be fast and granular to quickly locate the exact items.
How does email archiving eDiscovery compare with other leading email archiving providers in features and pricing?
When comparing email archiving eDiscovery solutions, look for a cost-effective yet comprehensive offering. eDiscovery must be rapid, accurate, and support a wide range of file types, and must not impose strict limits on file size. Features such as retention period must be configurable to allow for variations across regulations and as the requirements change. Leading email archiving providers should be evaluated with these potential limitations in mind. Some vendors place limits on storage and file size. Some vendors may be inflexible with retention periods. Journaling, which describes how emails are archived before being added to an inbox, may be limited or non-existent in some email archive solutions.
What are the long-term cost savings of switching to email archiving eDiscovery?
Switching to email archiving eDiscovery can offer significant cost savings. Some email archiving eDiscovery solutions, like ArcTitan, reduce email storage by 80%. By moving to a cloud-based email archiving solution for eDiscovery, a company can expect to reduce overhead costs on maintenance and management. An MSP can deliver cloud-based email archiving solutions as a cost-effective solution for SMBs.
Benefits of Email Archiving for Legal Firms
Security should always be a priority, and email archives allow legal firm administrators to control access to archived emails carefully. Archives store sensitive information, so it’s important to keep files secure from outside hackers and insider threats. Insider threats emanate from a trusted source, making them especially difficult to detect. Email archives protect from internal and external hackers by limiting access on a least privilege (need to know) basis.
Reducing the time it takes to find important information from archived emails, i.e., eDiscovery, saves research time, saving on IT costs, improving productivity, and significantly reducing lawyer fees. A good email archiving solution could save a large law firm large sums in yearly legal costs.
Some of the main benefits of using compliant email archiving for legal firms include the following:
- Compliance: FINRA, HIPAA, and PCI DSS require audit trails and backups for disaster recovery and any incident response to data breaches. Email archiving solutions like ArcTitan keep law firms and legal professionals compliant with the latest requirements.
- eDiscovery: Legal professionals spend hours going through email messages for litigation and investigations, but a good email archiving solution can cut down on this time. Email archiving solutions let legal researchers tag, store, export, and organize important documents.
- Cloud-based storage management: Backups eat up storage space, and you don’t need years of files stored as backups. Administrators can store archives in the cloud to free up storage space for backups, but keep a copy of older files.
In an emergency, backups are used for disaster recovery; however, email archives can also be utilized to retrieve older emails and forward them to a user’s inbox. Email archives aren’t primarily used for backups, but they are helpful if backup files are corrupted and can’t be used for recovery. Most importantly, email archiving solutions provide a scalable way to store years of email messages without interfering with the day-to-day administration of the network. It’s a convenient way to stay compliant with retention plan requirements and backups.
Secure Email Archiving
The importance of a retention plan cannot be overstated, and security plays an essential role in maintaining compliance with retention policies. Imagine your law firm is a victim of a data breach. After the incident response and investigation, researchers found that malware was introduced to the environment several months prior. To ensure that the same incident doesn’t happen, researchers can go through archived email messages to find who introduced the malware and how the malware accessed the environment. This step in investigations and “lessons learned” during incident response helps remediate the issue by training employees on the signs of a cyber-threat and ensuring that the malware is eradicated from the network. It’s especially important for advanced persistent threats that add backdoors to make it more difficult to completely remove them from the environment. Ultimately, email integrity relies on security.
Secure email archiving must enforce security using appropriate measures.
Why do companies choose email archiving security when evaluating email archiving options?
When evaluating an email archiving security solution, IT managers in financial services should look for the following features: standards-based encryption such as AES 256-bit, TLS encryption for email transfer security, robust authentication options, AI-powered antimalware, email retention policies that are long-term and adjustable, comprehensive auditing and reporting, centralized management and deployment, and cost-effective cloud-based scalability.
How easy is it to migrate to email archiving security from another archiving system?
Email archiving regulations vary, but email archiving security solutions are designed to adhere to the stringent requirements of data security and privacy laws. Additionally, regulations such as FINRA set lengthy retention periods, which must be accommodated by flexible retention policies enforced using an email archiving security solution. Migration to an email archiving security solution from another archiving system depends on the organization's size and the specific circumstances of the migration. Migration is smoother when switching to a cloud-based email archive software system designed to meet regulations.
How scalable is email archiving security for growing businesses or enterprises?
Email archiving security solutions must be highly scalable to ensure that a business or enterprise can grow organically, while still relying on the archive to handle increased email storage needs. Cloud-based email archiving security solutions are designed to be elastic in their scalability.
Benefits for MSPs Handling Attorney Clients
It’s not uncommon for law firms to outsource their IT management to management service providers (MSPs). MSPs assume the responsibility of ensuring their legal clients are compliant with the latest government regulations. TitanHQ solutions make it convenient and secure for MSPs to handle their client data, including emails. Our solutions support multi-tenants, allowing you to roll out solutions to multiple clients, all while managing them from a single interface.
Data breaches can be devastating for legal clients. The law firm may face millions in legal, reputational, and operational costs, and depending on the contractual relationship, the MSP could be held liable for failing to adequately protect its client. However, by implementing robust cybersecurity solutions, including compliant email archiving and backup, MSPs can significantly reduce this risk.
Email archiving ensures that all communications are securely stored, indexed, and tamper-proof, enabling faster forensic investigation in the event of a breach or legal inquiry. It also helps the client remain compliant with industry regulations like HIPAA, which require secure handling and retention of healthcare communications. Meanwhile, having a reliable backup solution in place allows the MSP to quickly restore compromised systems or lost data, minimizing downtime, limiting exposure, and maintaining business continuity.
In essence, these cybersecurity measures not only protect the client’s sensitive data but also shield the MSP from potential liability, reputation damage, and costly legal disputes, turning cybersecurity into a critical component of client trust and operational resilience.
How does HIPAA-compliant email archiving work, and what problems does it solve for businesses?
HIPAA-compliant email archiving is designed for any healthcare organization that comes under the umbrella of the US healthcare regulation, HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996). HIPAA-compliant email archiving is required under the HIPAA Security Rule to retain emails for a minimum of six years. The email archive must have robust access controls and a comprehensive audit trail. Encryption is required to ensure that email-based data is tamperproof and to safeguard the integrity of PHI (personal health information).
How easy is it to migrate to HIPAA-compliant email archiving from another archiving system?
HIPAA-compliant email archiving solutions are cloud-based services that smooth the transition from conventional email archiving systems. However, migration from one archiving system to another must be viewed as a process. When choosing a solution, look for archiving and compliance solutions that, as well as being cloud-based, offer unlimited storage and support for a broad range of file formats.
Does HIPAA-compliant email archiving integrate easily with Office 365, Google Workspace, or other email platforms?
HIPAA-compliant email archiving must integrate easily with Office 365, Google Workspace, and other email platforms. When evaluating HIPAA-compliant email archiving platforms, an organization should identify solutions that offer deep integration with these email platforms to automate the archiving of emails. Automation helps to remove human error.
Whether you’re an IT professional handling a legal firm's infrastructure or an MSP managing several legal firms, email archiving is a requirement. Compliance violations can be costly, usually paid per record disclosed. TitanHQ’s comprehensive range of cybersecurity solutions offers law firms a way to significantly enhance their cybersecurity posture and minimize the risk of data breach.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Email archiving regulations are reflected in many data protection and privacy regulations and laws worldwide. Regulations include those impacting the financial sector, e.g., FINRA, healthcare, e.g., HIPAA, and general privacy regulations such as the GDPR. Email archiving regulations have meant that email archiving solutions are designed to offer robust security, tamper-proof archiving, granular and long-term storage, and fast retrieval.
Migrating to an email archiving solution designed to meet the stringent needs of the regulatory framework is a process. Email archiving regulations vary, but usually require robust security, adherence to the tenets of data privacy, and set lengthy retention periods (as in FINRA). Migration to a compliant email archiving regulations solution from another archiving system depends on the organization's size and the specific circumstances of the migration. Migration is smoother when switching to a cloud-based email archive software system designed to meet regulations.
Scalability is an essential aspect of any email archiving service that is used to meet regulations. Cloud-based email archiving for regulations is designed to be scalable as the business grows and changes. Scalability must include unlimited storage without additional costs.
Email archiving for financial services is an archive system that is secure, automated, and robust enough to meet the data protection and email retention requirements of financial regulations. Email archiving for financial services provides long-term storage of email content, attachments, and calendars. The eDiscovery, retention, security, and privacy capabilities of archiving for financial companies provide the technology to meet financial sector and data protection regulations.
Regulations such as the SEC Rule 17a-4 apply to a broad range of organizations, including broker-dealers and any other entities that trade securities or act as brokers for traders. These entities include banks, securities firms, and others that fall under the jurisdiction of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). All of these organizations benefit from email archiving for financial services.
Financial services companies can save costs over the long term by choosing to use an email archiving service designed to meet financial sector regulations. Cost savings can be achieved through reduced email storage needs and the prevention of noncompliance fines. Some email archiving services offer “pay-as-you-go” subscriptions to spread the cost of the archive.
Government departments, worldwide, are subject to various data protection laws that impact email-based data. For example, regulations include the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). In Europe and other affected countries, the GDPR impacts governments. Governments must choose an email archiving solution for government compliance solutions, designed to ensure that email data and attachments are secure, but available as required. The email archiving for government compliance solution will provide eDiscovery, end-to-end security, and support usability and automation through integration with email platforms.
The email archiving for government compliance is a cloud-based service that is designed to make migration from another archiving system fast and simple. However, migration from one archiving system to another must be viewed as a process. When choosing a solution, look for email archiving for government compliance that offers unlimited storage and support for a broad range of file formats.
As a cloud-based service, email archiving for government compliance solutions is highly scalable. With unlimited storage, the email archiving for a government compliance solution grows with an organization.
Law enforcement organizations must maintain secure, tamperproof records of all communications. These records must be readily and quickly accessible, as required. Access to these records must be secure, and least privilege access must be upheld. Email archiving software for law enforcement ensures that all email communications are automatically archived and stored securely. The use of end-to-end encryption, robust access controls, and antimalware ensures that email archives remain secure and tamperproof. Fast, accurate, and granular search and retrieval are an integral part of email archiving software for law enforcement.
Email archiving software for law enforcement solutions must be highly secure and compliant with data security and privacy laws. Having fast and accurate access to tamperproof email-based evidence is a fundamental aspect of carrying out law enforcement activities. Email archiving software for law enforcement must use robust security technologies, including encryption during email and attachment transfer and storage. Access to email archive data must be based on the principle of least privilege to ensure only those who have the correct access privileges can search and retrieve emails.
Email archiving software for law enforcement is cloud-based. Delivery using an SaaS model means that the solution is scalable to meet the exact needs of the organization. Email archiving software that is cost-effective provides unlimited storage. Using a subscription model for solution payment helps to spread the costs. By switching to a cloud-based email archiving software for law enforcement, an organization can save on maintenance and management costs.