Finding the Best Secure Email Provider for Your Small Business

Secure Business Email Provider Checklist

Here are eight security features we consider essential in any professional email service.

1. Encryption

Encryption is a must for secure email. The industry-standard encryption method is SSL security. SSL disguises your emails while they’re in transit so that hackers can’t intercept them.

An even stronger encryption method is end-to-end encryption. End-to-end encryption disguises the content of your emails while they’re in transit and when they’re on your device, so that not even your service provider can read them.

2. Authentication

Encrypting your emails is only the first step. You also need to prevent bad actors from using your email domain to send emails without your permission (called spoofing). If a scammer uses your domain to spam your clients, it could ruin trust and seriously hurt your company’s reputation.

DKIM, SPF, and DMARC are the industry-standard protocols for preventing and reporting on fraudulent attempts to use your domain. A good business email host should support these protocols and allow you to review and customize them.

3. Access permissions & multi-factor authentication

Small businesses and startups often share login credentials, but the more people who have access to sensitive information, the more likely there is to be a breach. Your business email account should allow you to set role-based permissions, so you can control who can access sensitive data.

Your business email should also allow multi-factor authentication, which provides an extra layer of security if your username and password are compromised.

4. Data privacy & GDPR compliance

Your email host should protect your data privacy and help you protect your customers’ data. This starts with making sure your email service doesn’t mine your data or sell it to third parties. Additionally, secure professional email will help you maintain GDPR compliance by default.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is an EU law that puts greater restrictions on how companies can use the data of EU residents. If your business has EU users or customers, you’ll need to comply with the GDPR.

Your email host should have built-in features that help you stay GDPR compliant, including:

• Double opt-ins to email distribution lists.
• Unsubscribe links that consistently work.
• Ways to automatically delete or export customer data when requested.

GDPR also requires that companies sign a Data Processing Agreement when using a third party to store, analyze, or share personal data. This agreement establishes how each party is allowed to use the personal information shared, and what precautions they must take to protect it. Email hosts that use Data Processing Agreements will usually say so in their privacy policy.

5. Reliable uptime

A reliable email host should have 99.9% uptime. Uptime is the percentage of time your email server is operational. Your email service should be functioning normally nearly all the time, other than during scheduled updates. If the service has lower than 99.9% uptime, that could mean they don’t have adequate security measures to guard their servers against hackers.

6. Email list cleaning

Ever click the Unsubscribe button for an email distribution list, but the emails just keep coming? This destroys trust and tarnishes the reputation of the email sender. Your email host should have functional Unsubscribe links and automatically delete bounced addresses from your distribution list. This not only preserves trust with your customers, but it helps you keep your email domain off of spam and blocklists.

7. Strong spam filtering

Most email services include a spam filter, but the quality varies widely depending on the service. A good spam filter should:

• Scan for malware, ransomware, and phishing attempts.
• Scan inbound and outbound emails for security.
• Have customization settings that let you “whitelist” senders you trust and block senders you don’t.

Customer reviews are a good place to start when researching whether an email service has strong spam protection.

8. Verified data centers

An email service is only as secure as its servers. The most trustworthy email hosts are transparent about the data centers they use. Companies that use privately owned and managed data centers have an advantage because they’re not affected by data breaches to third-party servers like AWS and Google Cloud.

How Northwest Registered Agent Keeps Your Email Secure

For almost thirty years, we’ve prioritized our customers’ privacy and safety over everything else. Here’s how we keep your email secure.

• Encryption security. Your email is protected by industry-standard SSL security. SSL encrypts your emails in transit, so that only the intended recipient can read them.
• Data privacy for everyone. Privacy by Default® is a core part of our business model. We believe privacy isn’t something you should have to opt into or pay extra for. We NEVER sell your data or send you targeted ads. Period.
• Private data centers, not third-party servers. We only use private data centers and servers that we own and manage ourselves. By not sharing your data with third-party providers like AWS, we’re safe from data breaches that impact large cloud servers.
• DKIM, SPF, and DMARC support. Our email service supports authentication protocols, including DKIM, SPF, and DMARC. These protocols help prevent scammers from using your domain or tampering with your emails.
• Whois Database privacy. When you register a domain with our registrar, we help you redact your contact information to keep it out of Whois Databases.

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