Email Archiving & Compliance Vendor Smarsh Introduces Upgrades to Integrated Email Encryption Solution

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Smarsh®, the managed service leader in secure, innovative and reliable email archiving and compliance solutions, today introduced version 2.0 of smarshEncrypt, its hosted secure messaging platform. The latest upgrades to the email encryption system enable users to not only deliver messages and files securely, but also to communicate back-and-forth confidentially within smarshEncrypt’s secure cloud.

Using Smarsh’s proprietary data-leak prevention engine, smarshDLP, administrators can establish corporate usage policies and automatically enforce the encrypted transmission of email and files that meet specified criteria. For example, email to specific recipients, or messages featuring specific content in the body or in attachments, can trigger delivery via smarshEncrypt. Encrypted delivery can also be initiated manually by the sender.

From there, message recipients are notified of the secure transmission and follow simple instructions to access the smarshEncrypt secure cloud. In seconds, the sender and recipient(s) can confidentially and securely read and reply to messages sent via the platform. Intellectual property, sensitive client financial information or private health information, for instance, can be transmitted back-and-forth in accordance with emerging state and federal data protection and data breach mandates and regulations.

According to Osterman Research, secure/encrypted email will be a top-five priority for organizational I.T. spending through late 2010¹. Its recent white paper “The Critical Need for Encrypted Email and File Transfer Solutions” contends that encrypted email and file transfer solutions are becoming a business and legal necessity due to the high volume of sensitive content stored within and delivered via email. With increasing governance and regulatory obligations – including state laws in Massachusetts and Nevada, the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act (and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation S-P) and The Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) – the punitive consequences associated with failure to protect sensitive data outweigh the cost of deploying encryption capabilities.

All aspects of an organization’s smarshEncrypt experience – including notifications – can be customized, strengthening branding efforts and building trust with a demonstrated commitment to client data security.

Deployed via the “SaaS” (software-as-a-service) model, the smarshEncrypt platform lightens the burden on email servers, as both secure messages and attached files reside in the smarshEncrypt secure cloud (rather than on the sender’s or recipient’s email server). Clients can use smarshEncrypt as a dedicated, secure file transfer system and eliminate the impact of file-size limits within their email systems. Email-related storage and costs are reduced, as is impact on network bandwidth.

The smarshEncrypt service is designed to integrate seamlessly with Smarsh’s hosted email archiving and compliance solutions. Within Smarsh's archiving infrastructure, the entire life cycle of an email can be tracked, starting with the original “pre-encrypted” message and including the comprehensive audit trail attached to each message.

The Web-based Smarsh Management Console serves as the consolidated administration destination for multiple functions. There is no need to log into separate applications to access encryption controls, another to view "quarantined" pre-review messages and then another for the email supervision system.

No hardware, software or plug-ins are needed to access the Web-based system, and there are no certificate or key exchanges necessary to access secure messages. The smarshEncrypt platform works with any email client, email system (including CRMs) or operating system, and service is compatible with all mobile messaging devices, including the BlackBerry and the iPhone.

“The development goals we set forth for smarshEncrypt were simple: leverage our years as a managed service leader in email compliance to give clients peace of mind with their email encryption efforts, and to create a solution that is easy to use and easy to administrate,” said Smarsh CEO Steve Marsh. “At the same time, email usage in the workplace has proliferated over time, the regulatory and legal environments have evolved and a whole set of subsequent risk and corporate knowledge management obligations have emerged.

“We recognized that organizations are approaching these emerging challenges with different solutions that often complicate or impede each other,” added Marsh. “With the Smarsh suite of integrated archiving and compliance solutions, we offer businesses an uncomplicated, efficient and reliable means to seamlessly support several mission-critical priorities – email archiving, classification, supervision, data-leak prevention and encryption – with a common set of tools.”

¹ Osterman Research. “The Critical Need for Encrypted Email and File Transfer Solutions.” July 2009.

About Smarsh (www.smarsh.com)

Smarsh® is the managed service leader in secure, innovative and reliable email-archiving solutions for message compliance and records retention, proactive litigation readiness and mail server data management. Smarsh solutions for data-leak prevention and secure messaging help users meet email and file transfer encryption obligations, mitigate risk associated with outbound email, and facilitate email supervision.

The SaaS (software as a service) delivery model enables clients to eliminate IT infrastructure costs and minimize operating burden, while benefiting from Smarsh’s expertise and experience in hosting large volumes of mission-critical client data. Customizable solutions fit the needs, budgets and technological infrastructure of any organization – big or small – and are matched with unrivaled customer support and service.

Founded in 2001, Smarsh’s growth has been recognized at both the local and national level. In 2008 and 2009, the company was named to the “Inc. 500,” Inc. magazine’s annual analysis of the fastest-growing companies in the United States. The Portland Business Journal recently ranked Smarsh No. 1 in its 2009 growth rankings for the state of Oregon.

Smarsh Inc.

Ken Anderson, 503-946-6044

[email protected]

Source: Smarsh Inc.