Secure Email: Why is it now more important than ever before?
A tiny security breach in an email might let dangerous viruses or spyware into the entire communication network. This can cause havoc throughout the entire company. When lethal ransomware infects the organization’s network, the issue gets worse. Such strategies succeed against even seasoned experts and seasoned workers.
Additionally, cybercriminals could divulge private information. They can make it known to the public or, in cases of personal vengeance, by offering it up for auction. Thus, it is very important to use secure email services. Indeed, even a small flaw in email security can jeopardize the entire organization.
Why is Secure Email Important?
Cybercriminals Frequently Target Email
When a new employee joins a company, their official email account is the first thing they receive. Employees access firm information and regularly contact one another using their individual email addresses. Email is the primary medium for all official communications with the company. Because of this, when workers collaborate remotely, they frequently communicate via their work emails. Due to the vulnerability of these communications, there is a chance that cybercriminals will target employees. To find security system flaws, cybercriminals frequently employ phishing, baiting, social engineering, and other sorts of cyber threats.
Security of Sensitive Data is Essential for Organisations
Confidential information contains highly sensitive information that cybercriminals can use against the firm or for illegal activities. Cybercriminals can also target routine communication and alter communications. This can lead to miscommunication and force the communicators (the employees) to disclose or withhold important information. Such forgery may lead to identity theft, which may eventually result in a breach of sensitive data. Organizations and employees alike must keep in mind that cybercriminals are in search of a minute gap. They can use this security gap to compromise the entire process.
Standards of Secure Email that are Too Lax
Even while email service providers use common security precautions, cybercriminals can quickly get around many of these safeguards. Typically, standard email defenses can only stop dangers that they are already aware of. The email system occasionally asks users to choose whether or not to take action based on whether the messages they have received are secure. Modern advanced threat detection systems improve security by utilizing machine learning, real-time analysis, and artificial intelligence databases. However, under normal email security precautions, no one uses such highly advanced approaches. Users must now adopt secure email safeguards. This will help to recognize a variety of dangers early on and prevent them from entering the system.
Cybercriminals use Tough-to-crack Invasion Methods.
Due to technological improvements in online security systems, cybercriminals and hackers frequently employ increasingly sophisticated tactics to get past various security firewalls. This may actually make them stronger. These methods, which let cybercriminals automate their attacks, include AI fuzzing (AIF) and machine learning poisoning (MLP).
Hackers can also disrupt a company’s operations, income, reputation, and market credibility by exploiting a number of cloud vulnerabilities. The implementation of advanced email security measures is crucial since each of these hazards is significant enough to have an impact on any company. Additionally, companies can pick secure email service providers that provide better and more robust email security as well as overall online security.
What’s the Process for Secure Email?
End-to-end encryption serves as the hallmark of a secure email. The recipient is the only one who can decrypt your message; neither the mail service nor a third party can. On the other hand, any standard email service, like Google, can read your emails and make them simpler for hackers to access.
The most popular options for encryption are PGP and S/MIME. While PGP employs both symmetric and asymmetric encryption, S/MIME relies on certificates that must be signed by either a trusted local certificate authority or a trusted public certificate authority. Using a certificate ensures that the email is actually delivered under your name, and nobody is able to alter it. Because of the encryption, neither the government nor hackers can see your communication or its metadata, including email addresses
Important Features of Secure Email
Some of the major distinctions between conventional email and security-focused email are relevant if you’re a big corporation or an enemy of the state. However, regular users might consider them overkill.
For instance, the location of your server might only be important if you’re an activist who can expect the government to subpoena your correspondence. However, end-to-end encryption can assist both people and organizations in protecting the privacy of their data: Many unencrypted emails led to the exposure of millions of emails, resulting in unnecessary losses of millions of dollars, in at least four significant breaches during the previous few years.
Some of the important features and elements of secure email services are as under. Also, you will get some ideas as to why some of these features might—or might not—matter to you.
End-to-end encryption
Understanding encryption is a prerequisite for understanding end-to-end encryption.
Encryption makes data unreadable. Any website with https in its URL employs a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to protect the transmission of your data from your computer to the website’s server. With the help of SSL, your computer can ensure that all data sent to and received from an SSL-enabled server is encrypted. The majority of websites you frequent will have SSL enabled to safeguard users from password or form input theft by someone “tapping the line.”
The same is true of email data: When sending an email over an encrypted network, the plain text content of the email is scrambled, making it impossible to read without what is known as an encryption key, which works like a password.
Modern encryption is so effective that it would take a million computers working for sixteen million years to break it. However, services like Gmail and Hotmail that are not security-focused simply encrypt data as it is being sent from your computer to their servers. It is clearly readable on the other side. Users must have faith that these companies won’t use their encryption keys to read your emails or that hackers won’t obtain them.
End-to-end encryption gives the user full control. A private key that is specific to your account and virtually impossible to crack must be received before the encrypted material can be decoded when you fill up your mailbox from an end-to-end encrypted email provider. All of this happens in the background with end-to-end encrypted tools unless you’re actively encrypting emails.
For computer scientists, encryption is a challenging topic to solve and can be resource-intensive to implement. End-to-end encryption didn’t become the norm until recently, in part because of messaging services like WhatsApp and a rise in public fear following events that exposed how much the world’s governments watch its inhabitants. Even Google’s systems weren’t immune to outside intrusion.
End-to-end encrypted email services will only be able to offer data that is worthless to anyone who does not have the user’s private encryption key if they need to turn up their data by the authorities.
PGP Encryption
In order to ensure the security and privacy of email exchanges over insecure networks, Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP, was created in the early 1990s. Private and public keypairs are used in their fundamental principle, which is used nowadays in encrypted messaging applications like ProtonMail and Signal.
In addition to using your password to authenticate with your email service, when you send an email encrypted with PGP, you use your public key to secure the contents as if it were a padlock. The message is then viewed by the receiver once they use their own private key to open the padlock. Simple lengthy text strings, like passwords, are what public and private keys are.
The contents could be seen by pasting that block into a decryption program that is set up with your private key. That’s correct: PGP may be applied manually without the use of a specific email tool. It’s one of the most secure approaches, provided an enemy can’t decipher your password, which may contain hundreds of characters.
Even though PGP was once only available as a manual encryption method, many secure email services now include it in their back ends. Consequently, even though your emails may arrive in plain text, they are completely unintelligible once they reach their destination. (It’s important to note that none of this applies if an enemy discovers your password.)
Whether the service gives you access to your own encryption keys, i.e., the ability to exchange these keys for ones you have already used, is one-way safe email differs from other types of email.
Two-factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication adds an extra degree of security to your email accounts. This authentication method renders an incorrect password worthless and greatly increases the difficulty of hacking. It depends on two things, specifically:
- Such as a username and password which you are familiar with.
- A possession, such as a backup key or a cell phone.
It makes sense to rely on more than just the security of your password. It is common to steal passwords in order to get access to victims’ accounts. However, the possibility of a hacker gaining access to both your password and your phone or physical backup is incredibly rare.
One-time token use is the most popular method of implementing two-factor authentication, while there are many other options available. While using the Google app to sign in from a new computer, an exclusive token generates. This token goes to the server. You can use this token only once. Getting a code via SMS to log into Twitter works similarly. Consequently, no one can gain access to or exploit or leak it. In the event that you lose access, it also makes it simpler to reclaim your account.
Metadata Handling
Did you realize that sending an email broadcasts information about your computer, network, web browser, and recipient as well?
Secure email services typically remove this information, which the email header metadata stores. Keep in mind that when it comes to security, you are also dealing with shrewd individuals. They are attempting to gather as much information as they can about your personality, routines, and preferences.
In order to preserve the privacy of its users, secure email providers should remove header metadata and collect as little information as possible.
Logs
For numerous purposes, including DDoS defense, email companies store logs. Logs record the IP addresses and connection times. The amount of data that the logs capture and the manner in which they store should influence your choice. One can share log data with third parties if an email service retains logs. The most secure email companies keep logs. Thus, nobody can identify you. The email service provider shall remove IP addresses from all sent and received emails. An attacker who has your IP address can find out your physical address and internet service provider. To successfully conceal your location and IP address, think about using a reliable VPN.
Server Location
Not all nations are conducive to privacy. Some countries have regulations dictating how particular long types of personal information must be kept on file. The Five Eyes intelligence network includes the US, UK, Canada, and Australia as members. They exchange intelligence on signals, and registering a secure email provider is among the worst things you can do.
Wrapping it Up!
In order to prevent message interception, secure email providers encrypt messages while they are in transit. They also offer end-to-end encryption, which restricts message reading to the sender and recipient only.
The majority of services provide Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Socket Layer (SSL) as their two encryption options. Most widely used web browsers and email services utilize TLS to encrypt communications between your computer and the server. When data is held on servers that aren’t directly connected to the Internet or transferred between servers, SSL is used to secure the data. You may encrypt your emails on any platform by setting up individual accounts with secure email services. Alternatively, you can also use open-source tools like PGP encryption.