Interview with Protus IP Solutions
May 2005
Interviewee: Steve Adams, Vice-President
of Marketing, Protus IP Solutions.
By: Terry McQuay, President of Nymity
Subject: Eliminating fax-based privacy breaches
Nymity: Why are faxes a privacy concern?
Adams: Faxes are a privacy concern
when the physical, organizational and technical safeguards
have not been put in place to protect the content contained
in a fax. For example, privacy breaches with respect
to faxing typically occur when multiple users share
a single fax number to receive faxes. This can occur
with either fax machines or fax servers. A shared fax
machine sitting in an open environment is a serious
threat to client/customer/employee privacy as faxes
sit idly in the paper tray waiting to be picked up.
In the case of fax servers, when a working group or
department share a common directory for incoming faxes,
privacy is again compromised as the content of faxes
is reviewed before being redirected to the intended
recipient.
Nymity: What are the different types of privacy breaches
related to faxing?
Adams: Most organizations invest
considerable resources to ensure their email and Internet
communications are private and secure, but overlook
these critical issues when it comes to their fax communications.
Consider:
- Traditional shared fax machines expose confidential
faxes as they sit idly on the paper tray. Fax server
implementations that store incoming faxes in public
shared-access folders do the same.
- Fax machines defeat compliance tracking –
incoming and outgoing faxes are not tracked or archived.
- Faxes to home offices often end up in curbside
recycling with sensitive information publicly available.
- Privacy regulations mandate that businesses guarantee
that they keep their clients’ personal information
fully confidential. Technical and organizational
safeguards must be put in place to ensure compliance
with these regulations.
Nymity: What are the privacy
legislative requirements related to faxing?
Adams: In Canada, organizations
are subject to various privacy laws at the Provincial
and Federal levels that relate to the safeguarding of
personal information as it is transmitted in corporate
communications. This includes regulations that deal
directly with protecting the personal information contained
in fax communications. In Canada, PIPEDA, or the Personal
Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act,
addresses the way organizations collect, use and manage
personal information. Personal information may be defined
as “any factual or subjective information, recorded
or not, about an identifiable individual".
Principle 7 of PIPEDA, in particular, deals with the
safeguarding of personal information. Section 4.7.3
states that methods of protection should include physical,
organizational and technological measures.
When implementing a fax solution, Canadian businesses
must ensure that it addresses these physical, organizational
and technical safeguards to protect the confidentiality
and integrity of personal information being communicated.
At the Provincial level, organizations in Alberta, British
Columbia and Quebec are privy to regulations protecting
personal information, as per Alberta's Personal Information
Protection Act, British Columbia’s Personal Information
Protection Act and Quebec’s Protection of Personal
Information in the Private Sector.
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Who is Protus IP Solutions?
Corporate Profile: Protus
IP Solutions - a high-growth application service
provider - offers value-added voice mail, email and
fax to email services to businesses around the world.
Our customers are involved in every industry sector,
including finance, insurance, real estate, pharmaceuticals
and retail. Whether they use our services across the
company or for key operational requirements, our customers
rely on Protus to simplify their voice, email and fax
communications. Protus solutions are sold both directly
and through a network of worldwide partners, including
major service providers. On-line, secure, internet fax
services are sold under the brand names of Virtual Fax
for business users and MyFax for internet fax services
targeted to Small Office Home Office (SOHO) users.
Additional information is available at www.protus.com
or www.myfax.com. |
Nymity: How can an organization take procedural precautions
to avoid a fax based privacy breach?
Adams: Safe Faxing Tips:
- Eliminate fax machines that leave received faxes in
an open environment.
- Confirm the fax number – or better, link directly
to an updated contact manager
- Include a Cover Sheet – Always complete a fax
cover sheet that clearly identifies both the sender and
the intended receiver. The cover sheet should include
a standard confidentiality notice.
- Double Check – keep and review records of sent
and received faxes to identify and limit any errors.
Nymity: How can an organization invest in infrastructure
to minimize the chances of a breach?
Adams: Organizations looking to minimize
the chances of a breach should consider electronic fax-delivery
solutions that:
- Allow faxes to be sent directly to the intended recipient.
- Provide automated cover-letter features.
- Guarantee secure delivery through encryption.
- Protect received faxes behind password-protected sites.
- Offer a way to store the fax numbers of key contacts
electronically to reduce the risk of misdialing the fax
number.
- Allow users to track sent faxes in real-time.
- Provide confirmation reports for sent and received faxes.
Nymity: What infrastructure fax solution is offered from
Protus IP Solutions?
Adams: Protus Virtual Fax™ is
an Internet-based fax solution from Protus IP solutions that
lets you send and receive faxes using existing email infrastructure
and the Web. Easy to administer, Virtual Fax leverages your
existing email/Internet infrastructure, providing a secure,
cost-effective fax solution that allows users to send and
receive faxes directly from their workstations.
- No additional hardware or software required.
- As easy to use as email.
- Automatically track, file and forward incoming and
outgoing faxes from email.
- No lost or misplaced faxes. Automated email confirmations
ensure delivery and receipt of all information communicated
by fax.
- 99.95% uptime, available 24/7
- Save 40% of fax operating costs in year 1 by eliminating
fax machine maintenance and expensive fax line costs.
- Account management tools enable real-time account modifications
and generation of usage reports according to agent/workstation,
client, or campaign/project.
- Fax delivery procedures can be automated through XML
Web Services
Nymity: What privacy concerns does Protus Virtual Fax address?
Adams: Protus Virtual Fax keeps fax
communications private and secure by sending and receiving
faxes using existing email accounts and the web, so communications
remain fully confidential.
- Faxes are received in and sent from password-protected
email accounts and web pages.
- Cover letters can be created instantly, identifying the
sender and the intended receiver of the fax.
- Fax numbers can be stored online to reduce the risk of
misdialing the fax number.
- Sent faxes can be tracked in real-time.
- Confirmation reports are sent via email for sent and
received faxes.
- Faxes sent and received via email can be protected through
encryption, or secure VPNs can be readily implemented.
- Optional: Get notified via email that a new fax has been
received – without having the fax attached to the
email. When this option is activated, an email notification
is sent when a new fax arrives. The notification contains
a link to a secure web page where the fax can be retrieved
after inputting the user login and password.
Nymity: How much does it cost an organization to implement
a Protus Virtual Fax solution?
Adams: Protus Virtual Fax is available
for a low monthly fee of $12.95, with discounts available
for larger deployments, with deployments completed in a matter
of hours.
Nymity: Other than Nymity, what other types of customers use
this solution?
Adams: Protus sees tremendous growth
opportunity for Virtual Fax in the Mortgage Broker, Real Estate,
Financial Services, Customs Broker, Utility and Health industries.
Organizations that process high volumes of faxes, that are
regulated by privacy legislation, or that are looking for
a cost-effective, integrated and reliable fax solution are
ideally suited to Protus Virtual Fax. Existing customers include:
Mortgage Intelligence, REMAX, GMAC RFC, Encore Credit, Brascan
Power and Siemens.
Nymity: In closing, do you see faxing becoming a larger
privacy concern?
Adams: Faxing is becoming a more widespread
privacy concern as evidenced with recent, widely-publicized
events relating to corporate fax-related privacy breaches.
In late 2004, it was reported in the media that certain Canadian
financial institutions had for a number of years, been faxing
private information about its customers to fax numbers belonging
to persons not related to the bank. Furthermore, in recent
years, the Canadian federal and provincial governments have
sought to protect individuals’ private information by
implementing privacy regulations, such as PIPEDA. Privacy
Commissioners are now responsible for ensuring that organizations
are held accountable for their information handling practices.
For example, Privacy Commissioners found the companies, Dynacare
and Viewpoint, to have contravened PIPEDA, as each company
had disclosed personal information via fax without consent.
As such, it now appears that organizations have no other choice
than to make their fax practices a major privacy concern.
For more information and a paper on secure faxing visit Protus
IP Solutions profile.
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