Email Archiving

Email archiving is the process of capturing, preserving, and indexing all your incoming and outgoing emails, along with attachments and metadata, for future access. Think of it as creating a secure and organized library of all your email communication.

Email archiving goes beyond simply storing old emails in a folder. It's the secure, long-term retention of email messages and attachments in a central, tamper-proof repository. This archive is typically separate from your everyday inbox, ensuring legal defensibility and preventing accidental deletion. 

Typically, email archiving allows for powerful search functionality, making it easy to locate specific emails by sender, recipient, date, or keywords for e-discovery, legal compliance, or internal investigations. The archiving process is especially crucial for organizations in regulated industries, where adhering to data retention policies is mandatory.

• Email archiving securely preserves and indexes all incoming and outgoing emails for future access, compliance and legal purposes.
• Key benefits include meeting regulatory requirements, disaster recovery, improved search functionality and better storage management.
• Best practices for email archiving involve adhering to compliance regulations, implementing retention policies, ensuring data security and prioritizing user experience.

Some may leave emails in their inbox, deleting what’s unnecessary and ignoring the rest. For those managing their emails this way, here are some key benefits of email archiving you might be missing out on:

• Compliance and legal holds: Emails can be crucial evidence in legal disputes or regulatory investigations. Archiving ensures they're readily available if needed.
• Disaster recovery: In case of server crashes or data loss incidents, archiving emails provides a reliable backup and prevents permanent data loss. If emails are stored in a separate location via cloud archiving services, this can be an additional layer of backup security. 
• Improved search functionality: You can use keywords or filters to easily search archived emails, making finding specific information faster than sifting through inboxes.
• Server storage: Archiving old emails can free up valuable storage space on your mail servers, improving performance and efficiency. (This may vary depending on your email provider or whether you store emails locally or in the cloud.) 
• Knowledge management: Archived emails can serve as a valuable repository of institutional knowledge and past communications.

When done properly, email archiving provides businesses with a number of benefits. An efficient archiving strategy optimizes workflows, ensures compliance, and can help prevent lawsuits. Consider these best practices to get the most out of your archiving strategy. 

Compliance regulations

Email archiving isn't just about convenience; it's crucial for legal compliance. Regulations mandate data retention periods, which often vary by industry. A well-defined email retention policy ensures you keep emails for the required time frame.

Regulatory frameworks such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) require strong data security measures to protect personal information. Secure your email archiving system with encryption and access controls. Legal holds might require preserving specific emails. Your archiving solution should allow for easy retrieval to meet e-discovery requests, formal requests by parties in a legal case to view electronically stored information (ESI).

Finally, maintain documentation of your policies and procedures to demonstrate compliance during audits. It’s also important to note that email protection software may help manage these best practices and ensure your organization stays on the right side of regulations while safeguarding sensitive information.

Retention policies

Retention policies dictate how long emails are archived before deletion. This is crucial for both legal compliance and efficient data management. A well-defined policy ensures you adhere to industry regulations on email retention periods, preventing legal trouble. Clearly defined deletion practices also free up valuable storage space and streamline searches by eliminating irrelevant clutter.

When crafting your policy, consider relevant regulations, your organization's specific needs, and email classification for appropriate retention periods. Factor in legal holds to preserve essential emails even after their designated deletion date. 

Data security and encryption

Email archiving is a double-edged sword. While it offers many benefits, it also introduces the responsibility of securing sensitive data. Encryption is key here. It scrambles email content, rendering it unreadable without a decryption key, safeguarding confidentiality even in a data breach.

Encryption also protects against unauthorized modifications, ensuring the integrity of archived emails. Furthermore, compliance regulations often necessitate robust security measures, and encryption is a recognized best practice.

To solidify your email archive's security, implement strong email backup and encryption for both stored and transferred emails. Restrict access with user authentication and enforce audit logs to track activity.

Finally, keep your archiving software updated with the latest security patches to plug vulnerabilities. Visit our blog post on the 13 email threat types to learn more about the importance of secure email best practices. 

User experience and performance

A clunky email archive can hinder productivity. Users deserve a smooth experience with fast search functions using keywords, filters, and dates to pinpoint specific emails. Speedy retrieval times are vital to keeping workflows flowing. An intuitive and accessible interface with clear menus makes navigating archives effortless.

Performance optimization goes hand in hand with user experience. Proper indexing fuels faster searches, while data compression saves storage space without impacting retrieval speeds. A scalable system ensures the archive adapts to growing email volumes while maintaining performance. Look for software that offers functionalities similar to your inbox, such as drag-and-drop actions for organizing emails, familiar search filters, and clear labeling for archived emails and folders.

By prioritizing user experience and performance, organizations can transform their email archive from a data silo into a valuable tool that empowers users to find information quickly and efficiently.

Most email platforms provide you with the capability to archive messages across various folders. Still, you may not know how to archive an email. Below are the step-by-step processes for email archiving within two of the world’s most popular platforms, Microsoft Outlook and Gmail. 

How to archive emails in Outlook

Here's a quick guide on archiving emails in Outlook:

1. Locate the email: Navigate to the inbox folder or any other folder containing the email you want to archive.
2. Select the email: Click on the email you want to archive. You can also hold down the Control key (Cmd key for Mac) and click on multiple emails for bulk archiving.
3. Archive button: Look for the Archive button. In Outlook for Windows, it's usually located in the Delete group on the ribbon. You can also use the Backspace key as a shortcut for archiving.
4. Destination folder (optional): If you’re wondering where archived emails go in Outlook, they are moved to the Archive folder by default.

That's it! Your selected email(s) will be moved to the Archive folder, making them readily accessible for future reference but removing them from your main inbox for a cleaner view.

How to archive emails in Gmail

Archiving emails in Gmail only requires the following two steps:

1. Select emails: In your Gmail inbox, click the checkbox next to the email(s) you want to archive.
2. Archive button: Locate the Archive icon in the toolbar at the top of your inbox. It resembles a box with a downward arrow.

Voila! Your chosen emails will be whisked away from your inbox and placed in the All Mail label. They're still accessible but won't clutter your main view.

Bonus tip: You can access your archived emails anytime by clicking on the All Mail label on the left-hand side menu in Gmail.

The first step to choosing an email archiving solution is to consider what you need your email archiving policy to do. First, understand how email archiving may help you achieve your compliance requirements. The solution you choose should meet data retention and security regulations specific to your industry.

Next, evaluate your needs and resources. Consider your storage options (cloud, on-premises, or hybrid) based on budget and data control preferences. Security is paramount, so prioritize features like encryption, access controls, and audit trails. 

User experience matters, too. Ensure the solution offers a user-friendly interface, fast search, and efficient retrieval to keep users productive. Scalability and integration are important as your email volume grows, and compatibility with your existing systems is a plus.

By researching vendors, comparing features, and taking advantage of trials or demos, you can find an email archiving solution that effectively meets your needs, safeguards sensitive data, and empowers your users.

Email archiving is a small but indispensable tool in your cybersecurity tool belt. Properly managing emails can reduce the chance of malicious threats and drastically minimize your company’s attack surface.

Are you new to email as a cybersecurity method? Try Email Protection software free from Barracuda. Discover state-of-the-art features that transform your email archiving and bolster your endpoint security measures.