Sony's high-profile cyberbreach, and the wave of embarrassing disclosures the intrusion triggered, has many company employees thinking twice before hitting the email send button.
Yet for one Brooklyn-based company, the hacking has translated into big business.
"Our numbers have doubled since the Sony attacks," Nathan Hecht, founder and chief executive of DSTRUX, said in a recent interview with CNBC.
In a world where electronic communications can lead to lawsuits or major public relations damage, the company's technology allows users to destroy emails they send and deny recipients future access to those messages. The platform—which recalls the self-destructing messages of "Mission Impossible" and "Get Smart" television fame—also prohibits recipients from taking screen shots of emails.
If someone does try to use the "print screen" function, a message pops up saying "that's not cool!," thus preventing access.
DSTRUX also blurs emails and allows the recipient to only see small portions of what they're sent at a time. The goal is to keep people from taking pictures of those emails that could lead to potentially damaging disclosures
The company doesn't take advertising money, so funding comes exclusively from private investors. DSTRUX's business model involves charging businesses and individuals for sending bulk emails and larger files, although for now its services are completely free.
Most of DSTRUX's eight full-time employees were recruited from the Israeli army's technology units.
"The next step is to help subscribers destroy their own posts on social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter when they want," Hecht said. Still, it's unclear how social media companies themselves feel about that plan: Neither company responded to CNBC's request to comment on the idea.
Sony in the hot seat
Kellman Meghu, head of security architects at Check Point Software Technologies, points out that Sony also had been infiltrated by hackers in the past, including attacks on its corporate headquarters and on the Sony Playstation system. "Sony has a history of consistently leaving its systems unpatched," Meghu said.
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Sony did not respond to an email and phone request for comment on its cybersecurity program.
Like a growing number of analysts, Meghu also isn't completely convinced that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and an army of elite hackers are behind the massive Sony data breach. "The problem really is much deeper as any small skilled hacker group would be just as capable as North Korea, or many other countries, of getting inside Sony's systems," he said.
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If Meghu were advising Sony, he said he would tell them, "Don't panic, it's too late. Run an audit and assess where you have sensitive documents."
How to protect yourself
As for the average everyday email user, Meghu doubts encryption email systems like DSTRUX are necessary. He believes a good password will usually give most users enough protection. He recommends users avoid easy number and word combinations for passwords.
Instead, he advises friends and family to "use phrases, they're much harder for hackers to crack."
Despite skepticism about such encryption services, new users are still flocking to DSTRUX, especially given an era when the transmission of data and information is no longer airtight.
"Thanks to the Sony invasion, we're on the verge of breaking past the 1 million mark in active users just months after launching, without any advertising at all," DSTRUX's Hecht said.