Sleep insurance is a cybersecurity concept that likens email security to insurance. It is often compared to security so effective that the healthcare IT team can stop worrying and actually sleep. Paubox's 2025 research on email security failure notes that 60% of healthcare organizations surveyed said they had an email-related security event in 2024, yet phishing generally does not get reported, so it never reaches the security team.
Legacy technology makes that a pain point as 83% of healthcare IT teams say legacy systems get in the way of day-to-day work, and 37.7% say they spend up to 20 hours a week just fixing secure email problems. When healthcare organizations choose layered defenses like Paubox that host encryption, threat detection, and outbound controls running in the background and cut down on the amount of manual work staff have to do, they are buying sleep insurance.
In email security marketing, especially in healthcare, sleep insurance is used as a metaphor. It describes current, automated email protection as coverage that helps IT directors and CEOs feel safer because the controls are always on and lower the risk that a normal message may turn into a reportable incident. This is especially relevant when, as a JAMA Network study puts it, “Employees at US health care institutions may be susceptible to phishing emails, which presents a major cybersecurity risk to hospitals.”
Regular cyber insurance is all about getting money back after an incident. Sleep insurance, on the other hand, is all about preventing problems and keeping things running smoothly.
The capabilities that help identify sleep insurance include:
Organizations buy sleep insurance because they fear one normal email will trigger a chain reaction. Phishing sits at the center of that fear because it looks routine until it is not. A JAMA Network Open study of phishing simulations across multiple U.S. healthcare institutions found that almost 1 in 7 simulated phishing emails were clicked, and the authors describe those click rates as a major cybersecurity risk for hospitals. Executives hear that and picture the worst case scenario where a single click turns an everyday message into an investigation, downtime, and a reportable breach.
Real incidents like the ransomware attack on Prospect Medical Holdings, reporting describes emergency rooms shutting down in multiple states, ambulances being diverted, and weeks of computer disruption that forced staff onto paper workflows and delayed services.
The events often carry a secondary impact beyond downtime, meaning theft and publication of sensitive identifiers. Coverage tied to the same Prospect incident describes claims that stolen data included large volumes of Social Security numbers and other sensitive files, which maps directly to fears about lawsuits and notification costs.
Paubox positions email security as continuous, low-friction prevention that reduces the chance a routine message becomes a reportable exposure. Paubox uses the phrase directly, stating that the Paubox Secure Message Center is “a central component of what our customers like to call, ‘sleep insurance.’” Product claims also map to the control set people expect from the tagline. Paubox Email Suite encrypts every outbound email automatically using 128- or 256-bit AES, and it delivers messages using TLS 1.2 or higher.
Paubox DLP scans emails and attachments, lets admins set scanning criteria, and allows quarantining emails based on the data detected. All these features and more serve as a basis for fail safe email security that easily qualifies as sleep insurance for organizations in any sector.
See also: HIPAA Compliant Email: The Definitive Guide (2026 Update)
HIPAA does not require portals; HIPAA allows encrypted email as long as the organization implements reasonable and appropriate safeguards and follows its policies.
Yes, encryption lowers risk, but a breach can still occur if the message goes to the wrong person, gets accessed by an unauthorized party, or an account compromise exposes ePHI.
Minimum necessary means only the least amount of PHI needed should appear in the thread and attachments, and prior quoted PHI, extra identifiers, and unnecessary documents should be removed or avoided.
Keep audit logs that show who accessed or sent ePHI, which recipients received it, what security controls applied (encryption/quarantine/DLP actions), administrative changes (rules/forwarding), authentication events, and timestamps for each action.