Sending an email seems to be a safe and direct activity - you send a message to a specific person at a specific address, and that person receives and opens the message. However, email is not private communication. It is susceptible to all kinds of hacking and snooping, sometimes by your own coworkers, but mostly by others outside of the company.

While email theft happens rarely, it is more common when there is important information being relayed. In other words, very few people want to eavesdrop about Aunt Matilda's bunion removal - not of interest, like most of the email transactions that go back and forth every day.

However, there is a chance that a business that allows proprietary information to be sent through a regular, unsecure email system will have people spying on them and intercepting messages.

The most people most likely to have a problem are those who are relaying sensitive information about people, industries, politics, business practices or investigations. There is not only a chance, but a high chance that these people have information that is of interest to people outside of the small circle that is receiving the email.

This information may even be of enough interest to motivate someone to make the significant effort required to break into a system.

It is particularly important to focus on the costs of email being intercepted. Even if someone were to intercept the email about Aunt Matilda's bunions, the damage that could be done with such information is limited. However, if the information being sent through your emails is potential more inflammatory or damaging, you may want to consider other solutions.

Businesses in particular are concerned about the privacy of their internal communications, and many businesses are concerned about the privacy of their clients and patients.

One serious concern for those businesses in the health care industry is that the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) requires that electronic exchanges regarding patient information is encrypted and safely sent.

This presents several difficulties, including the fact that encryptions that use 'keys' are particularly difficult to use when you are dealing with many thousands of patients on thousands of different PCs.

Health plans must also maintain and transmit data electronically and allow clients to use electronic signatures, etc., but must also protect their information.

For these companies who recognize that as soon as a 'send' button is clicked, the security of the message is lost, a secure company email security solution is a must.

Experts in all industries recommend finding a value oreiented provider, one that will bring peace of mind. Find a provider that specializes in email security, not a third party provider which does not know how to preserve privacy.

Look for a secure email solution that will protect each message's integrity. Find one that uses and open - architecture solution rather than a proprietary system, since the open architecture systems can stay around for longer periods of tiem, and you are likely to be able to find support for them for many years.