Gwebs Cryptographer

Some changes ahead

I’m wrapping up my work here in Gwebs company and within China. It has been pleasant to work here and with nice atmosphere. So many new things learned and gained the idea of business in China. But like said, time flies and now it’s time for me to head back to Finland, finish up my studies and head for the new challenges. Anyway before that, I still have some ideas and things to share with you.

I mentioned earlier in my posts that I will test Google Wave, when it will come available for everyone. Well, I have to pass this job to my colleagues, ’cause the Google Wave for regular users hasn’t been released yet. Only the test version for selected persons is available so far. (Here is the post about Google Wave.)

Then some other things which I also mentioned earlier, is that I’m willing to try out the Windows Mobile 6.5 with some email encryption application and see how well it will work with our MailCloak encryption software. Well, guess what ? Windows Mobile 6.5 hasn’t been released yet for HTC Touch Diamond 2, so I have to wait until end of this or next month. So far, the estimated release date is “during October/November 2009″, so still some time to go. Maybe I’ll try it out back in Finland and then just send the results to my colleagues, ’cause I think that this topic is very interesting for mobile users like me. These mobile issues are getting more and more important, because the smart phone markets are increasing rapidly.  (Here is the post about email encryption mobile usage.)

What else ?
I guess, quite many people found out that Windows 7 is finally released and available for consumers. So we took a sneak peek for that to check how different it really is, and how are the security issues handled there. For me it has always been as a thought in my head that Microsoft Windows and security doesn’t really belong in to the same sentence, at least not in a positive way. But we will see, I’m open-minded with this one, so much good I have heard about Windows 7 during the beta-testing.

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Social networking seems to be pop right now, how many people you know that they use / don’t use social network applications like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Orkut, XiaoNei (校内 in China), or other ones. Can you honestly say that you have never even heard of these applications ? Yeah, that’s what I thought.. These apps are integrating to our daily life, and eventually someone will ask “How we kept in touch with our friends before social networks?” Just like my friend’s kid asked me once that “What you were doing at work before internet?”. I think these questions will make people to think that how dependent they really are about technology and services.

But more interesting is that how many people really trusts into these open and free networks. Some time ago Facebook got so much publicity when they announced that all data what users have put in it will be theirs, so basically all the personal data, pictures, videos, etc. Then just a bit later, they told to users that there are no worries, that everything will be just fine. And now, hardly no-one even remembers that anymore.

It seems to be that internet is so full about different kinds of social networks and applications which are collecting users private data. And I think it will be only the matter of time when someone will steal all that data, ’cause normally these services are not having so strong security. One reason might be the money issue, although I guess nowadays quite many people will be interested to pay a bit for example the usage of Facebook, if they can be sure that all their data is secured. But on the other hand, there are plenty of users who think beforehand that what information they are willing to share and which information not. And just like Barack Obama advised kids, that be aware that once you post something into the internet, you can be sure that I will be digged up later, if it can be used against you. So maybe it will be nice to take a look for Facebook Etiquette as well, although most of these things are more or less self-evident, but I think still worth of reading through.

I read a couple of articles some days ago about privacy and security issues in social networks/webs, just like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and so on. (Links to the articles at the end.) These articles are mostly pointing out the same issues which I wrote above, that it’s really users own responsibility what to share and for whom to share it. So many instances are following social networks also like friends, colleagues and family, everybody you like but also quite many you maybe haven’t thought about. Like your boss, different organizations and companies, so basically if you’re planning to apply for a new job, it might be that your profile will be checked through before you will get invitation to the interview. And also talking about that in social network, might make your boss feel unease.

But that’s not everything about privacy issues, there’s also some other things to point out as well. Nowadays, it seems to be that mobile phones are getting closer to laptops and vice versa, so it’s quite normal to update social network profiles through mobile phone. And for up-to-date user it might be self-evident to have anti-virus software also in a mobile phone, but I can tell for sure that most of the users don’t have, any kind security software in their mobiles “I don’t need it, this is Just a phone”, but anyway the users are using all the same programs and applications as with computers. So, basically all the data what user is keeping in secret in his/hers computer, user will freely use in mobile, without thinking that the same “evil”-internet is waiting there as well.

The thing which I brought up the mobile phones into this also, is that what makes people think that if they use one secured system in one place, it won’t be useful, if they use same data with non-secured systems elsewhere. And this includes everything, not only social networks, but emails, contacts, files, pictures, etc.

A while ago there was news about new type of identity / private data phishing, basically there are some applications within social networks, which are collecting different kind of data from users. And then some identity thiefs have been using that data to create virtual-friends for users. So the main idea is that these virtual-friends are sharing something common with user, belonging to same groups or have same interests, then they’re sending friend requests to users. And if user will accept their request, then they will collect all data from that user, what they think is useful for them. Maybe email addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, photos, videos, etc.  So nowadays it’s really recommended for people to check what kind of information they are sharing from themselves and are they really willing to tell all their secrets or thoughts to everyone.

I personally like social networks a lot, and I like that there’s some place where I can enter almost from anywhere to check how my friends are doing and letting them know what’s up in my life as well. I haven’t paid much attention for security issues in social networks, but now after reading these articles, I might take another look for some apps properties and privacy options.

Some of you might think now, that what will be my result to solve these privacy issues, well frankly speaking there is no solution. I can only encourage everyone to think twice before posting anything to social networks,  text, comments, pictures, video, files, etc. what ever is on your mind. Sometimes you might think that with this post your friends appreciate you more or you will get publicity, but be aware that all that data will be saved somewhere and it might pop-up later, when you cannot expect it to happen.

Here are the links for the articles I mentioned earlier:
Fast Company’s article: Privacy and Security Issues in Social Networking
Computer World’s article: Protect your privacy on Facebook and Twitter

Some other articles related to this topic:
Google Warns of Privacy Issues on the Social Web
Exclusive: U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets

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Almost every week I can read news about smaller or bigger scandals about passwords or private data exposures. What’s wrong with today’s users ? Lack of common sense or are people just getting more and more stupid ? So many times I have faced these situations that someone is asking my email address and password, just for checking my address book. Or then the Microsoft Messenger trick “See who have blocked you from their MSN”. Or the one with credit card number “So many credit card numbers are exposed, check if your one is on the list”.

Come on, how easy can average user really be ?
I really think that people are getting more and more reliable on internet and all the services, but they really cannot see that there are also thiefs and other “bad people” around. So many of us are thinking that of course it’s safe, because it’s somehow related to service what user is using. But at the same time on the streets when someone is humbly asking to borrow their phone they get scared that the person will steal it or use it for illegal activities. Why this question never comes into their minds when acting in internet ?

At this time, a bit more than a week ago, Google’s Gmail and Yahoo’s Mail were also targeted by a large-scale phishing attack, perhaps the same one that harvested at least 10,000 passwords from Microsoft’s Windows Live Hotmail, according to a report by the BBC.

The BBC also said it has seen a list of some 20,000 hijacked e-mail accounts; the list included accounts from Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL, Comcast and EarthLink. The latter two are major U.S. Internet service providers.

I assume that when people are reading these news, they are first over sensitive, maybe one week, after that paying attention what they do online and where they use their passwords, max. one month. And after this, they start acting like before. Maybe that one month they haven’t seen any progress of safety or increased privacy, so “it’s okay to continue the old style, no-one is interested about MY emails and passwords“. But this way of thinking is just that what might lead to scandals. Everyone’s email account is interesting, not necessarily the emails or the content itself, but all Your addresses, contacts, your passwords and login info for everywhere else, because still on these days normally the login infos are posted to one’s email, when starting to use new services.

And also one other thing, which I think is very important here, is that so many users used to use same passwords for different places. I know by myself, that it will be very difficult to remember all the passwords if they are just randomly made. For example 20 passwords for tools at work, 5 for your own emails, 20 for other services online (social networks, online banking, bookstores, games, etc.) And I’m not encouraging people to write them down, but just inventing some patterns to remember them or then using some other tools for securing all those passwords. I know that there are so many nice software available, which are taking care of your passwords, but for me, I don’t know can I trust them or not.

Here are links for more information about this scandal:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/gmail-and-yahoo-mail-passwords-exposed-737
http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/exposed-the-great-password-scandal-596064
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9139000/Gmail_Yahoo_Mail_join_Hotmail_passwords_exposed

Here is nice collection of hints and tips for boosting online security:
http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/10-easy-ways-to-boost-your-online-security-591191

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Back at the old times, when I was a active student I used to use email a lot, for writing to my study-mates for setting up groupworks, to my professors to ask questions, for my family to keep in touch. Email started to be one of the main communication way. It was just so easy, fast and convenient. You don’t have to wait that the other person is available, you can write it a bit, save it and continue later, so you don’t have to bother someone many times to get all the information you really need. You can use email almost anywhere, especially if you’re using any kind of webmail, just have internet connection - log in and handle your mails.

Now when I’m looking back in time, it was really like that. But nowadays when all kinds of social networks and instant messengers (IM) are available, I can see that I’m not really using email so much anymore. It seems to be “too slow” way to contact people. I guess this technological awareness is really taking place in today’s daily life. People are getting so used to use different methods to keep in contact immediately. If one cannot reach you from any IM or social network, it might be that the person will give you a call or send a SMS. Just because they want to exchange the information now.

Sometimes I feel that it’s really distressing, that you have to be reachable always, because of projects, work, friends, family, etc. And if you are not reachable people will feel annoyed, it just seems that no-one is not allowed to have their own time anymore. And I’m not talking about vacations now, normally vacation time is sort of “holy-time” of course this depends pretty much that what kind of job you’re doing and what’s your responsibilities in the company. And who can say that after a couple of weeks vacation the email-inbox is empty ? I can tell you for sure, that mine is not. If there’s less than 100 emails I can be happy.

I made a little enquiry within our staff, that how they feel and use their email, encryption software and other software. This research was quite interesting, because the most of our staff is Chinese and I was quite amazed about some of the answers.

According this enquiry, I think usage of email is culture related, more or less. With this amount of data it would be close to impossible to hand out any inclusive report. I think that peoples’ opininions are anyhow quite different here in East that they are at West, I mean opinions among tech-related people. I won’t analyze the results themselves, just take a look and make your own judgement.

Well, here are the questions what we asked and also the results what we got. The results are in blue, that it will be easier to follow.

Enquiry -  We asked for short answers with arguments and here’s the conclusion.

Habits of e-mail usage ?
For what kind of communication you are using e-mail ?
For most of repliers e-mail is mostly used for work or business purposes, sending data, files, documents and pictures when the receiver is not reachable with instant messenger (IM).

How fast you’ll expect that the recipient will answer you  ?
The most of the people wish to get a reply within a same day, some even within one hour. Only a couple of answerer were satisfied if they will get reply within 2 or 3 days.

Do you check your email daily ? hourly ? weekly ? sometimes ?
Almost everyone is checking their email daily or several times per day.

How important e-mail is for you ? Can you live one week / one month without e-mail easily ? If you’re not able to check your emails will you go crazy ?
Here the answers were basically divided into two, approx. half of the repliers told that they use email only for work or business, so they can live easily without it, and they won’t go crazy if they cannot check their email (of course depending if they will work that time or not). Then the other half seems to be more dependable about email, and they will go crazy if they cannot check their email even once within 3 days.

What did you expect when you first time used any kind of e-mail encryption software ?
Did you think that it will make your life more secured ? (From what?)
Almost everyone told that they feel more secured when they use email encryption, and the most common reason was privacy. They don’t like the idea that someone is snooping and reading their emails.

Did you thought that what might happen if you lose your encryption/decryption keys ?
Here also the answers were basically divided into two, the first group admitted that they didn’t thought that what might happen if they lose their keys. The other group seemed to have some experiences about this already and it seemed to be that someones are getting angry for the software for losing those keys, even if the fault was their own. And this normally led for changing the encryption software.

How did you felt when you used one (software) ? Did it effect immediately, giving you the emotion of security ? Or all the worries, “What if ?”
For everybody the first feeling was very positive, strong feeling that “now I’m secured”, but some of the repliers admitted that later they start to wonder with “what if?”-questions and also feeling annoyed of all inconveniences with the software, like reading email in many places, all the time feeling worried about the keys and so on.

When you tried some encryption software, did you think that “this is it!” I’ll use this forever or did you tried to find a better one, more secured one ?
The most of the answerers have been searching better ones after trying the first one. A Few told that they don’t mind to change their software but the current one is just fine too.

How do you feel about Free and Not-free software will it cause you feeling of trust/mistrust ?
All repliers think that free software is basically just for testing it and seeing the main features. And that the not-free ones are better, more reliable than free ones.

When you see free software, will you think how nice, there are still some kind people to offer this kind of tool free ? Or will you think that is there something behind “hidden” ? Will this company use my data for something else ? Maybe illegal activities ?
Quite many replier thought that there has to be something “hidden”, but still most of these repliers were not so interested if the company uses their data for something or not. Someones thought that the software can be free, ’cause the company will get funding from advertisements or from some foundations.

By which criteria you choose the software which you are using ? Free ? Well known ? Easy to use ?
Every single replier told that the most important things for their software is that it’s well-known and easy to use. If it is free of charge, even better, but someones said also that if the software is good enough, they will gladly pay for that it makes their life easier and more secured.

How you can trust that free software is really free ? or how you can trust that the software (what was SO expensive) is more trustworthy than the free one? Can you?
This question was made in purpose to be familiar with the earlier one. This question raised up the idea what I was willing to see.
If the company offers only   software which is free of charge the most of people don’t trust for it, but if they have for example products for individual use for free and for business use chargeable ones, then it’s fine. Then it’s the interesting part, the most of the repliers also thought that if the software is free of charge and open-source then it must be trustworthy, because basically anyone can check and modify the source code. Although, within security softwares this rarely happens, ’cause otherwise the hackers can see it too and then it’s not safe anymore.

Does the cost of software give you any kind of idea how good it might be or how trustworthy it is ?
The most of the repliers thought that the amount of money or cost is not really related for that how good it is. Quite often the most expensive one is having already so many features that it won’t be easy to use anymore.

Will you use any software which is delivered by government or other authority ? Why ?
Only one of the repliers is using software delivered by government and only because it’s required by the other business partner. Other ones thought that they won’t use any software which is delivered by government, because the software might include some spy-ware.

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I guess most of the people have been following the news about “Bank screws up and sues Google”, which is very interesting news related to Email security. When I read this news at the first time, I just shaked my head and thought “This can only happen in USA”. And the worst thing here was that those emails were not secured at all, just basic emails full of customers’ private data.

I really cannot understand about the result that Judge orders Google to deactivate some random users accounts because of someone made a mistake, humane mistake. Especially one, whom these random users are not related to. I can say that I might go crazy if one day my email is de-activated without noticing it before, just because someone has sent some email to my email address which doesn’t belong to me.

The situation is easy to compare to non-digital world. Let’s think that post is delivering to your postbox someones bank statements, without being in a letter. Just papers to your postbox, will you feel safe ? Will you think that is that the common policy of this bank ? Anyone can read that information on the way, the staff at post office, the delivery guy and anyone who is just on the way. Will you also consider that it’s reasonable that the Bank will sue the owner of your postbox, because they made the mistake ? And even worse, do you think that it’s reasonable that they will vanish/seal up your postbox, ’cause there is some information that doesn’t belong to you.

For me, this all sounds so ridiculous. If someone needs to be sued or punished the person will be within the bank staff. Also I really feel unsafe for this bank, that they didn’t use any encryption for those emails. Anyway, I assume that they are using letters when posting bank statements to their customers, so why not using encryption when data is in digital form ?

Luckily, I’m not a customer of this bank, and I feel safe with my own bank accounts. Banks that I’m using are really investing money for security and also offering the best service for their customers. Of course the situation is currently better in Europe than it is in Asia, but Asia is growing fast, very fast. About USA I really cannot say, I always feel unsafe about money issues there. The credit card policies are so loose and all the security issues seemed to be popping up all the time. I guess it’s only the matter of time that people are getting annoyed for so bad and unsecured service.

But luckily on the mean time suing in US is so easy and convenient so why not suing everybody and make people suffer about mistakes, maybe the ones they couldn’t prevent at all, ’cause that’s what it’s all about. I’m really happy about Google’s services so far, but this case is just a bad example how vulnerable this huge company is also for crazy laws and policies in US.

Although, I don’t know where is better, maybe in Europe. I’m currently living in China and getting so frustrated about governmental actions to limit access to “out there”, I mean the Chinese Great Firewall (GFW) is really bugging my nerves all the time. But that’s another story.

Here is the case file for you to make your own judgement “The Rocky Mountain Bank Vs. Google” (pdf-file).

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This guide will help you understand the basic facts about email security — what it is and why you need it.

What is Email Security?
On one level, email security is ensuring that your emails are secure: that is, it involves the maintenance of the basic information security concepts:

• Integrity - ensuring that your message has not had unauthorized alteration
• Confidentiality - ensuring that no unauthorized person (or process) has viewed the content
• Accountability - being able to prove who wrote the email
• Availability - ensuring that the email can be sent/received
• Non-repudiability - being able to prove that the recipient really did receive it

But more than the email itself is involved in email security. It also involves:

• Ensuring that you neither receive nor send malware hidden within the email or any attachments
• Minimizing the receipt of spam, scams, phishing expeditions and illegal content
• Ensuring that staff neither accidentally nor with malicious intent allow or send confidential, sensitive or illegal content within or outside of the company

Why do I need Email Security?

You need email security simply because failure to do so has both commercial and legal ramifications. An example that can illustrate both aspects would be infection with a highly destructive and virulent virus. Let us assume that your own systems are infected, and the virus payload is delayed but destructive: that is, you manage to infect, say, a competitor before this virus destroys your system.

The commercial implication is obvious: loss of your systems, data, records, etc. will be severely damaging if not fatal. But on the legal side, many lawyers believe that you could be held liable for any loss suffered by a third party that you infect, whether intentionally or even knowingly or not. If that third party were a competitor, then it would have little incentive not to sue the elbow off you.

And the history of internet litigation is already strewn with examples of both staff and competitors suing companies that have allowed compromising information to circulate within, or worse, to escape from, the company network.

It would be much safer to ensure your email is secure rather than risk the potential problems of insecure emails.

What do I need in Email Security?

Since so much is involved in email security, it is not surprising that you will be lucky to find everything you need in a single product. Just on the basis of the above discussion, you will need:

• Anti-virus software (to ward off viruses and worms)
• Anti-spyware software (to ward off trojans, adware and spyware)
• Anti-spam, -phishing, -scam software (to cut down on wasted staff time)
• Content security software (to make sure confidential, sensitive or illegal content is neither circulated within nor leaked from the company)
• A company email usage policy (to reduce staff misuse of the email, and give you some redress for when they do misuse it)
• And last but not least, a secure email (as opposed to email security) capability

The secure email system is possibly the hardest of all. The problem is that it inevitably involves encryption - and the only form of encryption that does not create administrative problems between the sender and the receiver is a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). But PKI is expensive to run and administer - and gets you involved with even more requirements. For example, if you operate a PKI, then you need to consider identity management software and provisioning software. Nevertheless, if you are a large company with lots of sensitive data, then PKI is the obvious route. For single user RSA (which stands for Rivest, Shamir and Adleman who first publicly described it) encryption method is a bit simplier and lighter to use. Quite many free encryption softwares are using RSA instead of PKI. The encryption is still “hack-proof”, which means that cracking it, it takes more than 100 years.

In particular, PKI and RSA can demonstrably provide four of the five security basics we noted at the outset of this article: integrity, confidentiality, accountability, availability, non-repudiability (availability is the one not specifically provided by PKI).

Where do I get Email Security?

If you are looking for email security software then you have a basic choice: you can look for best of breed point products in all of the above; you can look for an email security specialist that bundles different aspects within a single product or suite; or you can go for a hosted service. Or then you can just download our MailCloak-software from our company’s website (www.gwebs.com/mailcloak.html). Yes, it’s free!

Other related topics:

Encryption for Dummies
http://opsec.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!62F870188540FB1E!1097.entry

Public Key Infrastucture, PKI, encryption for dummies
http://www.networkworld.com/news/64452_05-17-1999.html

Public Key Infrastructure, PKI (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_key_infrastructure

RSA encryption (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA

Terminology and encryption algorithms
http://www.easeus.com/resource/encryption-algorithms.htm

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When I started my work at Gwebs, this was one of my first questions. I mean, so far that our own products don’t support mobiles, smartphones, pdas, etc.  Anyhow, our product co-operates nicely with all software that use GnuPG (GPG), it’s tested with quite wide scale of applications.

I wanted to know how I can access my encrypted messages whenever and wherever. I just got so dependent on mobile usage of email from my previous job at one telecommunications company, sometimes you just have to be there 24/7 available, for your colleagues all around the world, your customers and clients. This is it what’s going on right now within IT-industry. Although, no-one is paying me 24/7 salary, but it just integrated for me as a habit. And now, sometimes I found myself at the bus stop reading my email, thanks for the reasonable price of data transfer.

I made some research about this topic and found out that encryption with GPG in smartphones is not so common than I thought. Although, nowadays, when smartphones are having Windows Mobile, Linux, Android, Apple, Symbian and maybe some other operating systems too. It seems to be easier to find a solution for encryption from PGP (Pretty Good Privacy).

I found out that Symbian used to have one component, made by Nokia, but no-one really knows is it still usable or not. About Apple and Android I really cannot say so clearly, ’cause both systems are pretty unfamiliar to me. So far Apple seems to have quite much research and development around iPhone, so I’m pretty sure that there are some encryption software as well.

Windows Mobile then, there seems to be a huge gap between versions (5.0/6.0/6.1/6.5) while searching supported applications, anyhow there are some software for encryption available. I haven’t tested these yet by myself, but will do later. At first I’d like to have the official update for WM 6.5.

Well, Linux is another chapter of it’s own. There are so many free, open-source encryption software available that it will be more difficult to find the one which suits the best for your needs, than just find one.

The other solution for encryption in mobile devices is PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), it’s not open-source and normally these applications are not free. But this also makes the difference to availability. There are so many PGP applications available for all these operating systems that I mentioned earlier. And of course, while the software is not freeware, you can expect some support for troubleshooting and equivalent for your money.

Anyway, I think that this is one of the main things nowadays while talking about email security and privacy. Because so big share of today’s business emails are sent by mobile devices, it’s really needed to have some software to obtain privacy within this communication way too. And for covering usability issues, it’s nice to have a software which co-operates with the same encryption method as while using a PC.

I’ll let you know later about my testing, WM 6.5 + PGP or GPG encryption software + MailCloak in PC. Having my own key in every single device (work, laptop and smartphone). And then testing it out, how it works and how easy it is really to use. But that’s going to happen after the Windows Mobile 6.5 release, which suppose to be soon.

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Security issues have been at the news recently and all the time more and more things are coming up. So many people are interested about their own security, when spending time with online societies and communicating with others, but just so few people are really using any software which is offering better security. The most of these people are just waiting the easiest one to use and cheapest one to buy, the whole field of Internet security seems to be offering too many options and choices. “Do I really need this? Which one is best for me? It’s too difficult to use, isn’t it ?” These questions are common among people, who have interest but don’t know where to start.

It seems to be that the most of the people have a belief that “e-mail is pretty secured service”, and “anyway no-one is interested about my e-mails”, but in fact there are so many people who have interest for normal users’ accounts, and information. And e-mail itself, is not secured at all. Even if the user’s own computer is having anti-virus software and firewall doesn’t guarantee that outgoing or incoming messages are secured. The following table (Table 1.) shows a little comparison between postcard, e-mail, registered letter and encrypted e-mail. This kind of comparison is quite common while talking about security issues among delivering messages from person to another. In my humble opinion I think this comparison is pretty close to truth, and gives you the idea, how messages are really going “out-there”.

The following picture (Pic.1.) shows how message can change on the way and how come neither sender or receiver cannot be sure that if the message has been tampered or not, if any kind of encryption is not used. This case represents also the postcard. Posting a letter or encrypted e-mail, then the possibility that message changes on the way is decreasing significantly, it’s represented in a picture (Pic.2.).

Pic 1. Postcard / E-mail without encryption

Pic 2. Letter / E-mail with encryption

The animations above are representing the situations of sending a message via postcard and letter / or e-mail with and without encryption. In both cases sender and receiver are not aware which kind of picture the other one is seeing. They can just believe that “This is the picture the receiver will see. / This is the picture the sender wanted me to see.” So it is very difficult to prove afterwards that was the message changing on the way or not. Well, common sense says: “How about I give him/her a call and ask about this?” But are people really willing to do it after every single message? I am not. Then the whole idea about sending an email is basically useless, if it’s not sure whether the message is going through without changing on the way.

Whenever people are sending their personal information, job applications, contracts, what ever that contains any piece of personal information, like name, social security number, address, phone number, etc. Why not using encryption ? Well, at least I’m not willing to put those pieces of information to the postcard, are You ?

There was earlier a bit similar post in our blog: “The Difference Between A Stolen Mailbox and a Steel Envelope: An interview with gWebs CTO Anderson Jin.” Please check it through also!

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These great tricks will have you using Gmail with multiple accounts. And doing it in style: faster, easier, safer, and with less trouble then ever before. Check ‘em out and let us know your favorite tricks.

1. (Automatically) Reply from the same address the message was sent to.

2. Check your POP Mail NOW!

3. Label Mail by account.

4. Use Colorful Labels to make them stand out!

5. Choose the right email address when sending mail.

6. Add Email Encryption

And: Reader Tricks (in comments)

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Security, email, google email, Email Security, gmail

Last night I was at the Beijing Tweetup and had an interesting conversation with Rebecca MacKinnon and Andrew Lih about NGO and journalist security needs, which got me thinking this morning - NGO’s and Journalists really need an easy-to use-security tool designed to provide them with 100% fail-proof anonymity and security - and MailCloak - our new encryption tool, is perfectly positioned to help them out.

Why is MailCloak positioned to help? Because MailCloak allows you to send email from Yahoo, MSN and Gmail, and protect your messages with strong encryption. Yahoo, MSN and Gmail - are these known for anonymity? Well, maybe they aren’t known for it, but they are great tool because you can create disposable email accounts freely and easily.

Here are the steps, most of which I have previously documented:

1. Setup your proxy connection (and turn it on) to keep your IP address private when accessing services you wish to remain anonymous
2. Create a new free, disposable Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or MSN Live Hotmail account. Remember, don’t use any real personal information.
3. Download and install MailCloak on your computer, and have your contact do the same.
4. Exchange public keys and test MailCloak by sending trivial messages to make sure they go through encrypted. Only send important information after testing the encryption.

That’s it!

Security, email, email encryption, encryption, government Anonymous, email, NGO, proxy, Security