Email Security

738 Words2 Pages

It is a paradox that in spite of the advances in technology that we are witnessing today one's privacy and security of data in the internet is often compromised to a very large extent. Often, personal information of individuals is stolen or financial data of companies are whisked away by elements who could put this information to the wrong use. It is in this scenario that privacy of data has become an important issue for computer users all over the world. Privacy of data becomes more important when one works in a public domain like the Internet. This paper will suggest some of the precautions that an ordinary person needs to take to maintain personal privacy and ensure safety of data while working with emails.

Analysis

The advent of the internet has changed the way in which technology was being used to support businesses as well as personal needs of users worldwide. Little did people realize that the internet would establish itself as a powerful facilitator of the needs of the common man in such a short period of time. However the same facilities that the Internet offers can also be a potential source for dissemination of our private information without us even knowing about it.

Email security threats may be of many different types. Email security can be compromised by spoofing, identity theft, attacks by modifying existing messages, and imposters [Kangas, 2004]. Hackers may use any or all of these methods to break into a user's computer.

Email security

Email is one of the most potent sources for losing our data because most people are complacent about enforcing email security. Email software is also the most used software among computer users. Hence, any vulnerability of popular email software can be easily exploited by unscrupulous elements to gain entry into the private data of a lot of people. Hence, it is very important that every one use secure email clients for receiving and sending emails. A lot of reputed email clients are available and the company that makes them releases security patches from time to time. All these patches from the company must be installed to plug any software vulnerabilities.

It must be understood that the computer architecture that is used to exchange emails are not very secure and does not provide for much privacy for the users. On the other hand, software like 'sniffers' is available in the market, which can effectively capture data that is meant for some other computer.

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