Is Fax More Secure than Email? Secure Messaging
Updated Mar 13th, 2026 - 8 min read
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Is Fax Safer than Email? Let’s Compare.
When someone says, “Why can’t we just email instead of fax?” they’re usually aiming for simplicity. But businesses in healthcare, legal, finance, and government aren’t choosing fax out of nostalgia, they’re choosing it because risk, compliance, and workflow reality often make “just email it” a bigger problem than it sounds.
This guide breaks down how email and fax actually behave, where each one fails, and why secure online fax can be a practical middle ground.
Both email and fax move documents from one organization to another. The difference is how they expose that data to threats (cyber, human error, and operational leakage)
In Goverment and regulated environments, “secure” also means defensible under audit: policies, safeguards, access control, and evidence of delivery matter as much as the technology itself.
When comparing fax to email it’s also important to understand the difference between online fax services like Notifyre that can offer stronger security controls compared to traditional fax machines.
Is Email Secure?
Email can be secure, but only when properly configured and managed. By default, email relies heavily on internet infrastructure and user behavior, which introduces risk.
Secure emailing typically relies on add-on controls: domain authentication (SPF/DKIM/DMARC), encryption in transit (TLS), and sometimes encryption of the message content itself (S/MIME), plus admin policy enforcement.
It means email security is only as strong as:
your configuration,
your recipients’ configuration,
and your users’ behaviour.
According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Annual Cyber Threat Report 2023–24, cybercrime reports in Australia continue to rise, with business email compromise and phishing among the most commonly reported threats affecting organisations.
The Auswide Bank reported billions of dollars in scam losses in recent years, with email-based scams and phishing remaining major contributors.
From a regulatory perspective, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) explains that organisations must take reasonable steps to protect personal information under the Privacy Act 1988, including securing electronic communications such as email. Without proper safeguards, email may expose sensitive information to unauthorised access or disclosure.
Email can be made secure, but in real life it often behaves like a high-exposure channel because it’s a primary target for social engineering and account takeover.
How Email Falls Short
Even in well-managed organizations, email commonly fails in predictable ways:
Phishing attacks targeting employees
Compromised mailboxes exposing entire message histories
Accidental forwarding of sensitive attachments
Autocomplete errors sending documents to the wrong recipient
Inconsistent encryption enforcement
The reality is: email security depends heavily on human vigilance and configuration. If either fails, sensitive information can be exposed.
Is Fax Secure?
Fax has a reputation for being “old,” but its persistence is rooted in how it transmits and how it’s treated under compliance frameworks.
Fax is often seen as more secure because it uses direct point-to-point transmission. It does not use open internet email routing.
Regulatory guidance supports the continued use of fax when safeguards are applied.
In Australia, the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles (APP 11) require organisations to take reasonable steps to protect personal information from unauthorised access or disclosure. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) makes it clear that appropriate safeguards must be applied when transmitting sensitive information.
This means fax is permitted under Australian privacy law when reasonable security measures are in place.
This regulatory recognition is one reason many healthcare providers, legal firms, and government agencies in Australia continue to rely on fax for sensitive communications.
So, is faxing more secure than email? In most standard business environments, yes.
How Traditional Fax Machines Fall Short
When sending from a traditional fax machine (PSTN), the sender’s machine dials the recipient’s fax number, negotiates a session, and transmits the image data over the phone network; it’s generally not routed through email servers. (It’s not inherently encrypted, but it’s also not sitting in an inbox exposed to phishing or account takeover.)
Common weaknesses include:
Misdialed fax numbers
Printed documents left unattended on fax trays
No encryption on analog phone lines
Limited audit trails or delivery reporting
Traditional fax reduces certain cyber risks, but introduces physical security risks.
Online Faxing vs Traditional Fax Security
Electronic faxing bridges the gap between fax acceptance and digital security controls. When sending an online fax the user uploads a document to a fax platform; the platform sends it into the fax network and delivers it as a fax on the receiving end. The security difference comes from the platform controls: authentication, audit logs, access policies, retention rules, and admin oversight.
Compared to traditional fax, online faxing reduces:
Paper exposure
Unattended printed documents
Manual dialing errors
Lack of delivery tracking
Compared to email, online faxing reduces:
Inbox compromise risks
Accidental forwarding
Phishing-based attachment exposure
Broad distribution list errors
With Notifyre, businesses can send and receive digital faxes through a controlled fax service designed for regulated industries.
Notifyre’s fax service offers:
Fax reports for delivery and tracking
Controlled user access and platform access controls
Centralised management and visibility
AES-256 encryption for data at rest and in transit
Two-factor authentication (MFA) for account security
Secure fax API for automated fax workflows and integrations
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for reliability and performance transparency
Automatic logout after 24 hours of inactivity to reduce unauthorised access
Instead of relying on standard email or physical fax machines, Notifyre provides a secure faxing solution built with security and compliance in mind.
Final Verdict: Is Fax More Secure Than Email?
Email is a powerful general purpose channel, but it’s also the number one attack surface for social engineering. Phishing, inbox compromise, and accidental forwarding remain persistent risks, especially when sensitive documents are involved.
Fax workflows reduce exposure to those inbox‑based risks by limiting redistribution and removing the document from everyday email traffic. When combined with secure online faxing, organizations gain modern controls like access management, audit trails, and delivery visibility.
For businesses handling regulated or sensitive information, the question isn’t whether email or fax is “better.” It’s which tool best matches the risk of the document being sent.
Choose Notifyre for Secure Faxing
If your business handles sensitive or regulated documents, moving to a secure digital fax platform that offers email to fax services, this means the email attachment is converted to fax and sent as a fax so you get all the security benefits of sending a fax through email.
When security matters, choose a fax platform built for it. Choose Notifyre.
Send Sensitive Documents More Securely
Use Notifyre to send and receive secure online faxes with delivery tracking, access controls, and enterprise-grade protection.
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