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Part 8 - Safeguarding Correspondence

Many people world over have a very legitimate need to engage in important and sensitive correspondence with others. But, because of sensitivity issue, they worry about security of eMail and agonize over ways to ensure their correspondence can't be intercepted. If you are one of these people, I'm sorry for this bucket of very cold water I am now tipping over your hopes and aspirations:

*** There is no way to be completely certain *** *** your eMail can't be intercepted ***

But wait — don't slink off dejected! I do have an answer for you.

What if it simply didn't matter if someone else could look at your correspondence? What if, with not much more effort than a couple of mouse clicks, you could turn your very sensitive eMail contents into an unintelligible jumble of characters that no spy could ever make sense of? And what if your addressee, and ONLY your addressee, could turn that jumble back into original message with same ease and celerity? Security against unauthorized viewing would no longer be an issue — in fact you could post message on your corner store bulletin board without a care in world.

Of course I'm talking about encryption, but don't sigh and turn away! If you knew about this sort of encryption you'd already be using it, because I guarantee it really is as easy as I just described.

Everyone who understands effectiveness and potential of encryption will tell you that it is — in personal and commercial arenas at least — an incredibly effective resource that is largely going to waste. While this article is specifically concerned with securing eMail, subject has much greater implications, even at personal-use level. For example, we all know we shouldn't keep sensitive information such as online banking and credit card details on our PCs, but we do anyway. Right? Don't worry — I'm not going to lecture you about dangers of keeping such information on your computer. But I am going to tell you that unless you take certain precautions you ARE going to regret it sooner or later.

Oh, and before I get on with specifics … if you are wondering why on earth any honest person would need to protect their eMail with encryption, consider this:

Any eMail you send can be read by at least following people: - anyone employed by your Internet Service Provider (ISP); - anyone employed by addressees ISP; - operators and their employees of any of Internet routers (possibly dozens of them) that your eMail data passes through en route to your addressee.