5 Reasons not to use POP email accounts
As the technology world evolves many of the old standbys are falling by the wayside and most for good reason. Many are due to security reasons and some are due to advancements that give more features and better service and some due to all of the above.
POP email is one of those “all of the above” reasons. Here are 5 reasons to discontinue the use of your old POP email account systems.
- Username and Password Sent in the Clear
In the default configuration, POP accounts send the username and password across the web in the clear, meaning it is not encrypted and can be seen on the internet by hackers looking for such information. That is a severe security risk. You can set up SSL and Multifactor authentication on some services out there, but a lot do not support all the security measures that should be invoked. - Risk of Data Loss
POP accounts are designed to REMOVE the content from the server and store it locally. If a user is using a desktop app to read an email that app downloads the email and thus removes it from the server. If the user deletes that email, deletes an entire folder, or the computer suffers a hardware failure. That data is now gone forever. Again, you can add on backup systems, but they are generally more costly than upgrading your email account. - Loss of Central Management
POP accounts can be installed to any number of devices and if data is downloaded to one device it will never appear on any other device. This can cause a lot of confusion and loss of data and since email is downloaded there is no way to centrally manage POP accounts. - Storage and Regulatory Compliance Concerns.
If you operate in an environment in which you are subject to compliance (HIPAA, ITAR, SOC2, etc.) where you must store email for a particular time period or be aware of the content of messages, then POP cannot be used. If the client is configured for POP and an email is sent from that client, then there is no way it can get back in the store for compliance unless it is somehow imported.
The user could also be sending an email out through another SMTP server, even sending an email with their personal email address as the reply-to address, this can be done by mistake or intentionally to avoid security systems. - Feature Loss
With POP email you lose the ability to do shared calendaring, shared mailboxes, Teams, and SharePoint to name a few. And again, If the email is being downloaded then data becomes useless, no sync to other devices can occur.
So, if you are still using POP accounts, it’s time to upgrade! Give us a call or email and we can show you what is possible! (520) 751-0888. Sales@acaciait.com
We hope you found this article helpful on why not to use POP email accounts.
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Greg Durnan is the Owner/President of AcaciaIT and very active in the business community of Southern Arizona. One of the founding members of the Greater Vail Area Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of the Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce. He is very passionate about the needs of businesses in Arizona. He also strives to educate clients on Computer and Network Security through Lunch and Learns, articles, and webinars.
On the weekends he enjoys spending time with his wife and son at their ranch in Vail and working with horses.