Microsoft has unveiled a new feature for Office 365 called Customer Lockbox, that brings enhanced security to commercial users. The encryption tool is designed to keep documents stored on the Cloud more secure. As part of the announcement, Microsoft revealed tighter security for its email platform.

HSBC Finance has revealed to mortgage customers that their personal information, including names, Social Security numbers, account numbers and emails could have accidentally been posted online late last year and early this year. The bank identified the issue on March 27, 2015, and is offering those at risk one free year of credit monitoring and identity protection from Identity Guard.

Network security software is only 24 percent effective in stopping hackers, according to Verizon's latest Data Breach Investigations Report. Yet corporations spend 2/3 of their budgets on this technology. Consumer data including email addresses, credit card information, home addresses and phone numbers are often exposed in these kinds of hacks.

Yahoo Mail's has updated its "contact cards" feature and added support for Twitter and LinkedIn information. Yahoo users can now see their contact's latest tweets and company, title, phone number and the like when they hover over a person's listing in their contacts folder.

More than 12 percent of marketing emails sent by nonprofit ends up in the spam folder, according to new research from EveryAction a startup that helps nonprofits manage email fundraising campaigns. The research also revealed that nonprofits could increase email fundraising revenue by 14 percent if they reduced their spam rate to zero. In addition, the findings revealed that nonprofits lose about $15,000 a year thanks to emails landing in the spam box.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has a approved a federal data security breach law that if passed would wipe out any existing state data breach laws. The Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2015 would be the first federal rule requiring businesses to tell consumers when their personal information has been compromised. The federal law is not as strong as some of the existing state laws. For instance, it only requires companies to notify consumers in the case of financial harm, not simply if their email address was exposed.

Stanley Steemer has revamped its direct mail to email messaging program to help drive better response rates. The carpet cleaning company worked with marketing agency Baesman to make the customer experience more seamless and the approach less siloed. They now send three emails a month and have seen a 33 percent increase in response rate (bookings) through its direct mail efforts.

PopTrayU lets email users see alerts about new emails in POP3 and IMAP4 accounts. The simple-to-use tool is designed to make it easier for email users to see when messages are going through. The tool includes POP3 and IMAP4 support, SSL/ TLS, and a "Test Account" button to confirm that the information is correct.

Conversica, a cloud-based AI platform, is hoping to connect business marketers with prospects by bringing artificial intelligence to email. The tool tracks inbound traffic to a company's website and if they share their email address by say, downloading a whitepaper, the site then sends the prospect an email from a virtual "sales assistant". These emails continue in a series until the person responds. These emails get a 50 percent average response rate, which the company claims is because they are associated with a real person.

The British tourism site VisitGuernsey is being investigated for breaching Information Commissioner Guidelines in its email marketing campaigns. Spamhaus has accused the site of being a spam trap that sends unsolicited emails to consumers. The tourism site has defended its practices saying that all of its marketing is permission based.