If you regularly need to send sensitive information by email or if you're looking for some added peace of mind, you can consider encrypting your email and using digital signatures.
Think about it like sending an important parcel – if you want to make sure it arrives intact and unopened, you will take additional steps to reinforce and secure the packaging or send it by certified or registered mail.
The same goes for important emails. Encrypting email is not necessarily 100% foolproof, but you will definitely fortify your email against the casual or indiscriminate hacker.
You can encrypt your email by obtaining a free email security certificate, which will:
- certify that your outgoing emails really originated from you
- encrypt your message so that only the intended recipients can view it.
- reduce spam and malware being distributed in your name
The first step: sign up for a free personal digital certificate, which you can get almost instantly from Thawte, Comodo or PGP.
How encryption works
- You will have a public key and a private key
- The private key is known to you alone
- The public key can be given to anyone you choose
When someone sends you an email, they will encrypt it using your public key. The email can only be decrypted and read using your private key, so even if your email is intercepted, it will be unreadable by the hacker.
When you send an email to a contact, you will use your private key to digitally sign the message so the recipient can be sure it is from you.
Advanced spam technology allows spammers to "spoof" names from a user's address book to make spam email seem legitimate. If your contacts are aware that all your emails are encrypted, when they receive an unsigned message they will immediately know that it's not really from you and delete it.
If your recipients also use certificates, you can exchange keys with them, which will serve to encrypt all subsequent emails exchanged between both of you.
Encryption, however, can also attract attention. If you only encrypt one email because it contains your credit card details and every other message you send is unencrypted and unsigned, the encrypted message will stand out to any hacker observing your email traffic.
So remember to encrypt all emails, not just confidential ones.
Anonymizers
Another popular way to secure email is to use anonymizers, which route your communications through anonymous proxy servers and email aliases.
This is often used by people who want to protect their primary email address from being picked up by spammers. It is common for spammers to monitor traffic at certain popular websites with less-than-ideal security features and harvest email addresses.
Anonymizer and other companies offering similar services can shield your real email address by allowing you to create disposable email aliases. Every time you are asked to provide an email address and you're reluctant to reveal your real email address, just use one of your aliases.
Think about it like using a disposable cell phone to call someone you don't quite trust, and then dumping the cell phone after you make the call so that you can't be traced.
Any email sent to your alias will be forwarded to your real email address. You can also use the alias to send anonymous email, and when you're done you can easily and quickly disable your alias to stop receiving any messages sent to that alias.
For greater control of your anonymity, you can use different aliases for different purposes, and specify that your aliases auto-expire after a certain time.
How safe are anonymizing services?
Well, there is still a trail that exposes you to risk. Remember, all your transactions will pass through the anonymizing server first.
An unscrupulous staff member may be able to access your data from the server and copy your real email address and other details you've provided.
Or if the anonymizing service itself falls prey to skilful hackers, they may be able to access the server and download your information.
So do your homework on whichever anonymizer you choose to use, and make sure you verify the company's reputation and data integrity first.
Also, avoid sending any sensitive data through an anonymizer. If you absolutely have to, make sure private information such as account numbers or passwords are encrypted.