Government regulations and standards continue to evolve. As they do so, they impact businesses around the globe. Every business must manage and secure information to remain in compliance, which can be challenging.

These regulations require businesses to comply with certain standards, laws, policies, and more, which means fax security is always important. With the help of digital fax solutions, every business can ensure it conforms to these laws, standards, and regulations. For this reason, many business owners choose to contact mFax today to ensure they remain in compliance.

Compliance Regulations

Certain industries find they face additional regulations. This includes the financial, legal, government, and healthcare industries. When a problem is detected, governments enact tighter regulations.

Sarbanes-Oxley in America is a good example of regulations put into place after a problem was found. However, the United States is not alone. Europe implemented the Data Protection Act 1998 to combat problems.

Industries may also choose to implement their own compliance measures. The Data Security Standard implemented by the Payment Card Industry Security Council is a good example of one such measure. The regulations work to ensure businesses constantly assess their security and privacy protocols to reduce compliance risks.

The Role of Fax

Fax allows parties to exchange information securely. The communication protocol remains inherently secure, as transmission cannot occur until a secure and direct connection is established. Which industries benefit from faxing today?

The Healthcare Industry

Medical professionals exchange protected health information via fax. When doing so, they must remain in compliance with HIPAA. Paper-based faxing puts the organization at risk because unauthorized individuals may see this information.

Digital faxing ensures protected health information will only be seen by authorized parties. Only the sender and recipient receive access to the information, so unintentional exposure concerns are eliminated. As digital fax solutions integrate with electronic medical records, the burden on the medical provider is eased as well.

The Financial Sector

Financial organizations rely on faxing to exchange information with specified parties. This technology allows organizations to process credit applications, send out collection notices, and more.

The use of this technology comes with irrefutable audit trails and transaction transparency. Its use improves communication speed, reduces costs, and increases customer satisfaction.

Government Agencies

Governments remain risk averse. As a result, they need a communication method that is secure and reduces the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive documents. Digital fax solutions must meet rigid security requirements. When doing so, they improve the exchange of information.

Legal Professionals

The legal industry relies heavily on fax today, as it eases the exchange of confidential documents. This technology allows for full visibility of fax content. All parties can see who transmitted a document and when as well as who received and saw the document and when they did so.

This audit trail remains critical in the legal industry. Not only must proof of delivery be demonstrated, but proof of receipt must be shown as well.

Addressing Security Concerns

Organizations making use of fax must ensure the privacy and security of any data. To do so, they need to secure incoming faxes and know who is receiving these documents. Safeguards must be put in place to ensure unauthorized individuals don’t access the data.

Audit trails are needed to follow a document through its journey, and the organization must have a place to store documents securely. Furthermore, policies must be put into place for document destruction and the exchange of confidential documents between employees. Non-Compliance Risks

Regulations address the protection and control of information flow throughout an organization. A failure to remain in compliance often leads to civil and criminal penalties. In addition to holding the organization liable for non-compliance, governments often hold individuals within the corporation responsible.

In fact, governments have put ramifications into place for suspected security breaches. These ramifications may include forensic investigations, criminal prosecution, and possible jail time. Fines may reach or exceed $1 million. Addressing Security and Compliance Concerns

Regulation compliance involves demonstrating documented proof of security and privacy measures. These measures may include document delivery process automation, information delivery and receipt centralization, document confidentiality security, and access tracking and monitoring.

Strategy Development

Every organization needs a strategy in place for compliance. The IT team must establish security and privacy guidelines for process control, privacy, information integrity, audit trails, and document archiving.

The Role of Fax in This Strategy

Fax solutions allow for secure information exchanges. They provide a centralized delivery and storage hub, with many solutions providing encrypted delivery options for added security. Intended recipients receive documents in tamper-resistant formats.

Most legal authorities now view e-signatures as legally binding, and documents cannot be altered without an audit trail. Businesses appreciate having a solution that integrates with many of their existing software programs. In addition, they find they have peace of mind knowing all data is backed up.

Individuals can find needed documents quickly with the use of digital fax solutions and track the history of any document using the software. The fax repository makes it easy to manage documents.

Digital fax solutions benefit all businesses. However, certain industries find they can accelerate their business processes, doing so in a cost-effective way, when they make use of this technology.

The organization gains control over document transmission without sacrificing compliance and security objectives. It benefits from a highly reliable solution that is readily available, and this solution aligns with the company’s compliance objectives.

Regulatory compliance will increase in importance in the coming years, as the world moves to a more digital existence. A failure to comply can come with disastrous consequences, so every business needs to make this a priority today.

They cannot afford to have their reputation harmed or their finances decimated due to non-compliance. The business may never recover if this happens. A well-crafted compliance strategy ensures this concern can be eliminated. This strategy must focus on safeguarding and overseeing the exchange of information.

However, the strategy must be updated continuously to comply with new regulations. Choose a fax provider that makes digital security and compliance the top priorities to ensure nothing is overlooked and those using the fax solution are protected from harm.