In brief:
Businesses are moving away from traditional fax machines in favor of cloud-based solutions, but security remains a top concern. Can cloud faxing protect sensitive documents from unauthorized access, interception, and data loss? And if so, how?
Below, we’ll break down the security measures that keep cloud fax transmissions safe.
Our fully managed Private Fax Cloud® architecture further eases cloud fax implementation and adoption. It’s designed from the ground up for healthcare organizations that need HIPAA-compliant faxing without the overhead of on-premises infrastructure.
To understand why enterprises trust cloud fax services, it’s helpful to approach it from four angles.
Enterprise cloud fax services excels in all the above.
A digital fax message can be encrypted using the same protocols that protect everything from secure email to military communications.
Virtually all commercial cloud fax services protect data with protocols like TLS and 128- or 256-bit AES encryption. All fax data is encoded in a way that can only be decoded by authorized parties with a secure key, so eavesdropping and interception are impossible (and would only detect gibberish).
Once fax data is at rest in the vendor’s data center, it’s subject to other security and operational protocols. Many vendors have earned SOC 2 and/or HITRUST certification as a testament to their technical and organizational safeguard.
Cyber threats evolve constantly, and so do countermeasures. Cloud fax providers monitor and release security updates to strengthen defenses and fix new vulnerabilities, all without burdening internal IT or disrupting users.
Inadvertent user access is often a bigger risk than hacking or complex attacks. Traditional faxing leaves documents out in the open, with no way to audit access after the fact.
Cloud faxing eliminates that problem by requiring users to verify their identity before accessing documents. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds an extra layer of security by requiring a second verification step, like a one-time code sent to a phone. Some systems also support single sign-on (SSO), which simplifies the user experience without compromising security.
Cloud fax also lets admins align permissions to roles. Traditional fax devices are effectively all-or-none, but cloud users can be limited to specific actions on specific messages, inboxes, or app integrations.
Cloud fax platforms automatically log every fax interaction, creating a detailed record of who accessed a document, when, and what actions they took.
These logs provide transparency and make it easier to detect suspicious activity. Audit trails are also invaluable in the case of internal or external reviews.
Data back-up and disaster recovery are built into all commercial cloud fax services. Generally, the fax application services and fax data are both replicated across multiple data centers. Back-ups and recovery are quick and automatic, so users may not even realize that a service interruption has technically occurred.
Some services may offer higher product tiers for more stringent uptime and availability requirements, so don’t hesitate to ask the vendor for details or even contractual guarantees.
For businesses handling sensitive data—especially in healthcare, finance, or legal industries—compliance is of the utmost importance.
Many cloud fax providers are willing to sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) or similar contract to confirm their commitment to data security and regulatory compliance. Most will share external security audit findings, and some may even offer data residency guarantees.
If faxing is operationally important to your organization, then cloud fax outperforms traditional methods across the board.
Enterprise cloud fax solutions address technical, operational, and legal gaps in traditional faxing. Their numerous safeguards allow for tighter and less burdensome security compared to analog devices—and the difference only compounds with higher document volumes. Naturally, the same goes for cost-efficiency and ease of use.
Realistically, “cloud fax” can mean multiple things at an enterprise scale. There’s a nuanced conversation to be had around public cloud vs. private cloud vs. hybrid fax architectures. All approaches are viable, all are in production at major corporations, and all make use of cloud resources for key parts of transmission and storage (at minimum).
Our team specializes in large-scale cloud fax solutions in highly regulated industries like healthcare. To discuss your security goals or concerns with a solutions engineer, please contact us today.