How can I securely send documents to my clients?

When running a business from time to time you may need to send documents via email to your clients, so how can you ensure these are sent safely and securely?

The first thing to consider is what does the document contain? If it contains data sensitive material such as personal details like name, address and date of birth as well as any financial details you will need to send the email using an encryption. There are different ways to do this depending on what email service you are using however normally you will find this option in your security settings. Encryption means that only the specified recipient can open the email ensuring it doesn’t get into the wrong hands.

You can also password protect and attachments that you are sending then issue a separate email with the password on for your client or set the password as something only they would know like their national insurance number or date of birth.

If you are sending contracts or legal documents you will want to make sure that these cannot be altered by any one and to do this you’ll need to send the document as a PDF. PDF means portable document format and it’s widely used to exchange documents and share files than cannot be altered.

When sending documents there are also programs available such as DocuSign that allow documents to be sent via a secure portal and then the client can virtually sign these documents and return to you quickly and safely.