Email Security and Email Archive Services

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) is heavily reliant on having a secure and reliable email service. HSIB uses the full offering of Microsoft Office 365 including Exchange Online which is used to provide an email account to all staff, however it lacks advanced enterprise features around security and email archiving.

The service requirements are broken down into two components: email security and email archive. The benefits of the email security component is that we have advanced email security features like Blockmail anti-spam, which keeps unwanted email spam from reaching our network. It reduces the time staff may have to otherwise spend on checking for unwanted messages, and importantly helps to avoid productivity losses by protecting our systems from malware and other viruses. It also prevents data leakage, which as HSIB operates with personal identifiable data, could potentially result in litigation or reputational damage if email security is not in place. In addition to the core security, further advanced features from an email security service provides additional protection with URL scanning on demand, which checks any links embedded in emails when the user clicks them to ensure they are safe, thus providing real time protection for our staff. These features along with the advanced management portal, allow for IT and staff to operate securely and efficiently with email.

The second service needed is email archive. This service is a critical component for HSIB, as it not only provides a mechanism whereby every email is put into retention, but ensures we are GDPR and general governance compliant with regards to maintaining an accurate record of all emails. The email archive solution ensures we meet all our core governance obligations around data privacy, integrity and security. Without this additional service HSIB would be in breach of GDPR as it would not have a mechanism to fully audit emails and provide a key recovery mechanism for emails that may have been deleted at any point in the lifespan of HSIB.