Email Risk Calculator

Your Firmographics

Employees

Files shared per employee, per week Average across sent, forwarded & re-shared files

Estimated value per file

$10

Estimated annual risk, by category

Business Email Compromise 48% weight

Malware 20% weight

Sensitive File Exposure 18% weight

Phishing 14% weight

Estimated total annual risk cost

Sum of the four weighted risk categories above

BEC / Wire Fraud

Malware

Sensitive File Exposure

Phishing

These are statistically expected annual estimates, not predictions. The model applies weighted risk shares to your file-sharing volume, then adjusts each category by how it typically scales with headcount, weekly file volume, or file value.

Start sharing safely

Sources

FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), Internet Crime Report 2025 (BEC and phishing complaint & loss data)
IBM Security, Cost of a Data Breach Report (breach cost by attack vector)
Verizon, Data Breach Investigations Report 2026 (human element, social engineering, malware trends)
Ponemon Institute / Proofpoint, Cost of Phishing Study (legacy benchmark, used directionally)

Should I email business files?

No, standard email is not safe for sharing sensitive business information like invoices, contracts, or even slide decks. Read below to learn why:

Standard emails travel as "plain text" data, which lets attackers read the contents if intercepted.

Attackers regularly conduct phishing attacks through email. If your coworker's account is breached, the attacker gains access to all sent and received sensitive files.

Once you hit send, you lose total control over the files. The recipient can easily forward it, or it could sit vulnerable in an unsecured inbox.

Sending unencrypted financial, health, or legal files via email can violate federal and industry regulations.

A man sends an email on her work laptop.

Two men looking at a laptop side-by-side.

What should I use instead of email?

To securely exchange confidential files and data, you should avoid using standard email. Instead, use one of the secure platforms below:

Tresorit Send allows you to send one-off end-to-end encrypted files (up to 5GB on some plans) and add a password.

Bitwarden Send is designed for secure, encrypted transmission of both passwords and files directly to a recipient with a link that self-destructs.

Filot SafeTransfer is specifically designed for regulated companies that regularly share confidential files with clients, partners, and teams.

Model Methodology

Filot's Email Risk Calculator estimates the expected annual financial exposure created by sharing business files through email.

The model does not assume every file creates a loss. Instead, it estimates the expected cost by combining:

How much valuable information moves through email
How often employees interact with that information
The probability that email-based risks (phishing, fraud, malware, exposure) create financial impact

The calculation follows the same general principle used in cybersecurity risk management:

Expected Loss = Exposure × Probability of Loss × Impact

We estimate the total value of information moving through email, then apply researched cybersecurity risk factors for phishing, fraud, malware, and data exposure to calculate the expected annual financial impact of using email as a file-sharing system.

The output is an expected risk estimate, not a prediction that a company will lose that exact amount.

Using email can cost your business