subject: Feeling Secure Using Online Faxing [print this page] Today, in an age where information is almost as valuable as skills, many people are concerned about the security of documents when they are corresponding with others. There is always the question of whether the message or document got through to the person it was intended for. How can you be sure that it did? At the same time, with so many hackers and criminals operating in cyberspace, how can you be sure that your message hasn't been intercepted along the way? These are questions that are usually asked in regards to email and internet hosting. However, because online faxing operates off an internet platform, the same questions can be asked of online faxing companies. How do they measure up? Can you feel secure about using an online faxing company? Let's look at possible answers to those questions.
Improved Office Security Using Online Faxing
In days gone by when most people used manual faxing, a single fax machine would be used by the entire office. In order to send a fax, an employee needed to stand at the fax machine to send off the document and then wait for the confirmation slip to be printed to record that the fax had in fact been transmitted. However, in terms of security, the larger concern was perhaps with incoming faxes. On a manual fax, pages were received automatically and printed out when they were received. This meant that documents would lie in the fax in tray until such time as they were collected by the person to whom they were sent. If these documents contained sensitive or confidential information then that information was on display to anyone in the office who happened to pass the fax machine. Anyone could literally pick up the documents and start to read them. From a security point of view, that scenario is less than ideal. With online faxing, each person in the office is assigned a dedicated fax number which is then linked to their personal email account. This means that customers can send information directly to a specific person. That person would be the only one who would have access to the information as it would be on their private email account. In terms of document security, this is a huge advantage.
How Secure Are the Online Fax Servers?
This is a question that many skeptics will ask. Many people use faxing rather than email to send information such as payment and credit card authorizations because they don't want that information floating around in cyberspace. Some people may believe that if you are sending a fax using an online server, it is no different than sending an attachment to an email, making it is no more secure than email. The primary difference comes in with the maintenance and security provided by the fax servers. Because these servers process such high volumes of requests on a daily basis, they are monitored and maintained 24/7. In addition, the servers have the latest and best technology available in terms of security. It is in the online fax company's best interest to keep your data secure and they make every effort to do so. In addition to the standard level of security that you have on your computer or office network, the faxes you send and receive online are protected by an even higher level of security. This is provided by the fax server hosting company.
No More Missing Faxes
A great concern with manual faxing was that often documents would go missing. Perhaps someone picked the pages up off the fax machine and filed them away incorrectly. Perhaps they were placed on the wrong person's desk and they either tucked the pages away under their mounds of work or they discarded the pages because they weren't relevant to them. Important information could be easily lost. With online faxing, this is less of a concern. The reason for this is that pages no longer get printed out for just anyone to pick up off the fax machine. Rather a fax is sent through to a specific person on their personal computer. The fax comes through in the form of an email message to which only that specific user has access. In addition, a fax log is kept recording all the fax messages that are sent and received by the system. This means that transmissions can be traced and users can be more certain that the fax got into the hands of the intended recipient.
Feeling Secure Using Online Faxing
By: Chris Haycox
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