An email goes a long way on its way to the recipient, and in this chain, it can be infiltrated by malicious software or the server owner deliberately takes certain actions to obtain confidential information. In addition, the recipient of the email itself can turn out to be a malicious user and use the information obtained for personal gain. And in this article, we will talk about the security of your e-mail and security measures.
Mobile Devices
The mass use of employees’ own mobile devices for business purposes has become an additional problem. The trend has even been given a special definition – bring your own device (BYOD). But statistics show that those who bring their own mobile devices to work and actively use them for work-related needs pose an additional threat to the information security of the corporation. If a gadget is lost or stolen, you can expect a big scandal related to data leakage. The company’s reputation is damaged and its partners are affected as well. Moreover, we advise you to be sure to register at ionos webmail login. Only this post office has super security and you don’t have to worry about the safety of your email account. But of course, you can find out more information on the website and by trying to use the mail.
A rather large list of the described problems can be solved comprehensively. There are e-mail protection systems that work effectively on desktops or mobile devices.
- Tasks to be solved
- Hardware and software
- Areas of application
Ways to Protect E-Mails
Complex protection of the information, for the transmission of which an electronic mailbox is used, sets the following tasks:
- Providing unhindered receipt of letters by the addressee, without the possibility of their interception, opening, reading, as well as preventing possible forgery.
- Protecting information sent by e-mail from being spread by an intruder without the sender’s consent.
Protection of Emails Against Interception
Achieving this task, which will have to be solved sooner or later, relies on the traditional methods of cryptography – the use of certain ciphers. Protection against possible forgery involves the use of EDS (electronic digital signature).
The technical side of security most often involves installing a special independently compiled software module (plug-in) for the mail client. Usually, this is quite enough, because this small additional software automatically encrypts and signs e-mails. If the user uses a web interface to log into his/her own Webmail, this process is performed by the mail server or a special script, which provides a higher level of security. A special resource is supposed to be used for primary key exchange.
The cryptographic technologies used for this purpose are mature, and their use reliably protects the information being sent from interception or forgery. Usually, such security measures are quite sufficient. Possible vulnerabilities of such a set of security measures appear only in the following cases:
– installation of explicitly “weak” crypto-algorithms, although the choice of such software may also be determined by the national legislative framework of the country, as it provides an opportunity for intelligence services to gain access to email, by breaking crypto-algorithms;
– failures in the functionality of the cryptographic algorithms or protocols involved;
– The original “Bookmarks” made by the attacker to the crypto-algorithms, which make it possible to break into the e-mail protection;
– Actions of a virus capable of intercepting an already decrypted message on the recipient’s device or gaining access to the keys of the sender’s or recipient’s “machine”.
In the majority of cases, the currently known vulnerabilities are either of external nature or are dictated by the selected way of implementing a security system. With a comprehensive approach to mail protection – these vulnerabilities are identified and eliminated.
Protection of Information Sent by Mail from Actions of An Unscrupulous Recipient
The task of protection of a letter sent by mail from its distribution by an intruder who has gained trust is performed by using certain means that allow creating a situation when “the addressee is only able to read the letter”. All other actions with information received via mail are inaccessible to him. A small program is used for this, called either an in-house letter viewer or a special viewer, or a special browser.
This software eliminates the possibility of using external components, which are usually used to demonstrate the contents of emails. As a result, the sender has its own difficulties – most software and hardware platforms are not supported, as well as the formats of the documents sent via e-mail.
Professionals note that, unlike email interception protection tools, the use of the “special email viewer” does not provide the desired level of protection, because it is impossible in principle. An intruder can simply take a screenshot of the information contained in an email and then use it to create a document. Unable to 100% prevent the unwanted distribution of information, software that protects email from an intruder only dramatically limits the potential volume of leakage.
The effectiveness of measures to limit the possible unauthorized distribution of information depends on the resistance of the applied protection means to the existing methods of automatic reading the information from the received letter, i.e:
– hacking from outside the special viewer of protected letters in order to extract a document from it;
– Copying documents from the screen, changing the format of the copies, and converting them into a document.
Even a set of available e-mail protection tools can be meaningless if there is no clear understanding of what you need to protect from what actions, what it’s needed for, and how reliable the protection system should be built. Only when you have a comprehensive understanding of your goals and the ways to achieve them, you can choose the best system among those existing on the market.
Means of Protection
Secure e-mail functionality is created by using:
– Mail Antivirus, which automatically scans e-mails and informational files for malicious software;
– Anti-Spam, which is responsible for identifying ordinary mailings to which the user has not signed up.
Both of these components gain access to incoming mail by:
– timely interception, investigation of mail traffic in the automatic mode via POP3, SMTP, NNTP, IMAP;
– Using special plug-ins available in mail clients.
Bottom Line
As a result, the elements of the complex protection of the mailbox make it possible to create an e-mail protection system, using the interception of mail traffic, additionally using special, independently compiled software modules installed in the mail clients. Protect your mailbox with security measures!