RightFax Support

Part of our RightFax support service is helping identify opportunities for improved fax security measures. The inherent security of fax provides a solid foundation, since fax calls over telephone lines are not readily intercepted, and nearly impossible to decipher (unlike emails).

However, even with fully secure transmission, the storage of fax images and their local access/privacy must also be addressed. That’s precisely why OpenText has introduced features such as the Encryption Module, whereby RightFax applies Triple DES 192-bit security to the contents of the fax image directory. This is particularly good news for our clients in industries such as health care, wherein protected data are an increasingly valuable black market commodity.

Before delving into the module, let’s take a quick look at this DES (Data Encryption Standard) technology. In a nutshell, “triple” refers to the use of three keys to encrypt, decrypt, and subsequently re-encrypt data. As computing power grew, single-key DES eventually became susceptible to brute-force attacks. The use of three distinct 64-bit keys is an effective countermeasure, providing exponentially more protection. In fact, the NIST has approved 192-bit Triple DES for use clear through the year 2030.

In addition to simply protecting the fax image data, the RightFax Encryption Module fully tracks all authorized image access while prohibiting unauthorized access. For organizations subject to PCI DSS, HIPAA, or other mandates, this represent a critical step toward regulatory compliance. And for those using/considering FoIP, it also works with encrypted transmission protocols to enhance end-to-end fax security.

As of version 10.6, the Encryption Module can be added onto all editions of RightFax (Branch Office, Business, Enterprise, Enterprise Suite, and Enterprise Integration Servers). If you’re still running a prior version of RightFax, then contact us today to confirm your valid RightFax support and discuss whether the Encryption Module makes sense for your organization. As always, it is our pleasure to offer a complimentary workflow consultation and ensure your fax environment is using RightFax as efficiently as possible.

Besides HIPAA compliance and workflow efficiency, does secure faxing really matter? It turns out it may be part of a far more important security strategy than is often realized.

A recent article shared the astonishing fact the patients’ healthcare information is vastly more valuable than their credit cards—10 to 20 times more valuable, to be precise. Reportedly, criminals purchase such information in order to obtain resalable prescriptions and equipment, and even to file bogus insurance claims. And unlike a credit card or bank account, medical records cannot simply be ‘frozen’ at the first sign of fraud. To make matters even worse, the difficulty of estimating the impact of or responsibility for security breaches means costs ultimately fall on consumers and patients.

Meanwhile, the prevalence of healthcare-industry attacks is increasing: the article reports that one study found the proportion of organizations experiencing attacks doubled from 20% in 2009 to 40% in 2013. These attacks are all too easy for hackers, who often find little difficult penetrating decade-old computer systems and outdated security protocols. This may not be surprising in an industry whose security measures seldom keep pace with rapid advancement in EMR implementation.

It is painfully clear that healthcare information security is an extremely complex and high-stakes realm, which requires significant investment, coordination, and planning from many stakeholders. In our experience, one critical piece of the puzzle is keeping document transmission and storage effectively impenetrable. In nearly every case we encounter, the most efficient way to do so is through a secure, encrypted fax solution.

Why is that? As with traditional fax machines, digital fax solutions can transmit via fully secure telephony, as opposed to ‘hackable’ communication such as email. Unlike traditional fax machines, however, digital fax solutions can record all views and activity of every transmission, and in the case of RightFax, can even safeguard all fax images with 192-bit Triple DES encryption (which next week’s post will further explain).

To learn more about our fax security analysis and RightFax support services, or to arrange a complimentary workflow review, please contact us today.

Many clients have inquired whether RightFax supports saving fax images directly into PDF format. It was a common frustration for many years, since TIFF was the only available format when saving from FaxUtil.

But as of 2021, RightFax does support saving faxes directly to PDF files. OpenText debuted this functionality in version 10.6 with a simple, three-step process:

1. Within FaxUtil, open the faxed document you wish to save.
2. Open the File menu and select Save As.
3. Choose the PDF option from the menu.

(Again, please bear in mind that only TIFF G3 and G4 formats are supported in versions prior to 10.6.)

Why save to PDF in RightFax?

End-users appreciate RightFax’s save-to-PDF feature support for a couple reasons. First, PDFs support high-quality printouts and higher-resolution viewing than TIFF documents. In addition, PDFs support expansive metadata as XML whereas TIFF G3 and G4 (for faxes and for scanned images, respectively) are more limited in the metadata they can store. They actually predate XML and still do not support it.

If you are running an older version of RightFax, and users are demanding a simpler way to save to PDF, then contact Paperless Productivity to confirm your active RightFax support and schedule an upgrade to 10.6. We also invite you to learn more about this latest RightFax release in general, or if you’re still stuck in the dark ages of paper faxing, to find out whether a fax server solution makes sense for your organization.

For more information or to request RightFax upgrade assistance, please contact us today.

IT departments frequently choose a distributed file system (DFS) as a means of improving data availability while maximizing redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities. These are particularly important given the business-critical nature of faxing for many companies, so a question often arises as to whether RightFax supports DFS technology. While the short answer is “yes,” the manufacturer has not published official guidelines or best practices for configuring RightFax to support DFS.

A main factor in successfully configuring RightFax with a DFS is to determine the role of Active Directory. Some organizations may use a standalone DFS namespace, which is only locally accessible, and therefore does not use Active Directory. However, a domain-based DFS namespace—which does use Active Directory—is much more common.

RightFax-Active Directory synchronization is reliable thanks to OpenText and Microsoft’s long-time partnership. In fact, your RightFax Connector for Microsoft Exchange is also a means of syncing the respective RightFax and Active Directory databases. Naturally, this makes RightFax user creation and management far simpler, and is a good practice which most organizations already employ.

Thorough RightFax product expertise and general enterprise network know-how are critical for a robust DFS and/or Active Directory integration. For this reason, we strongly recommend that clients work with their RightFax support partner to configure the fax server to operate with their DFS. We at Paperless Productivity address this business-critical functionality on a regular basis, and are happy to offer our insights and guidance to all our clients.

Likewise, if your organization does not currently have RightFax support but wishes to configure its fax server with a DFS, SAN, NAS, or other complex storage service, contact us today for further information on one-time and ongoing RightFax support options.

Presumably, your RightFax support provider has kept you abreast of OpenText’s Sustaining Maintenance schedule. These dates are critical for administrators to understand, so let’s take a moment to review their support implications.

First of all, Sustaining Maintenance does not mean your RightFax license will cease functioning. Rather, it means OpenText will no longer created updates, patches, hot fixes, and so forth. As a strictly hypothetical example, if a Windows update caused issues with the print-to-fax functionality in an Sustaining Maintenance version of RightFax, then users of that version would probably not receive an official solution from OpenText.

Likewise, without recourse to the manufacturer, your RightFax support partner can offer only “best-effort” support. Consequently, we strongly urge our clients to take advantage of the upgrade access to which their support contracts entitle them.

Although the current version of RightFax is 10.6, all versions 10.0 and later are currently supported. Please refer to the following schedule for an overview of RightFax support Sustaining Maintenance dates:

Version	Status	Sustaining Maintenance Date
10.6	Current	TBA (5 years from release of subsequent version)
10.5	Supported	November 11, 2016
10.0	Supported	July 17, 2015
9.4	Sustaining Maintenance	June 30, 2014
9.3	Sustaining Maintenance	December 31, 2011
9.0	Sustaining Maintenance	October 1, 2009
8.7	Sustaining Maintenance	September 1, 2008
8.5	Sustaining Maintenance	February 17, 2006
8.0	Sustaining Maintenance	September 30, 2004
7.2	Sustaining Maintenance	August 31, 2003
7.0	Sustaining Maintenance	October 31, 2002
6.0 & earlier	Sustaining Maintenance	June 30, 2000

Even if your prior version of RightFax is still supported, there are a number of benefits to be gained from upgrading to 10.6, such as:

• Easier hosted telecom integration via RightFax Connect cloud technology
• Compatibility with the latest Office products, including the 2013 editions of Exchange and SharePoint
• Updated connectors for ERP and MFP integration
• Numerous enterprise-oriented features for easier server collective set-up and administration

Please contact us today to confirm your current RightFax support status and license info, and to discuss if/when your organization can benefit from an upgrade to version 10.6.