Encrypting Emails: Why Is It Important?

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According to Tony Bradley, an information security resource and prolific author, there are basic steps which everyone should take to secure their computers and networks. One of them is encrypting email communications, particularly for those including personal or confidential information.

Encrypting an email will remain hackers from catching and reading any private communication. By using trustful email certificates such as VeriSign and Comodo, an email can be digitally signed (fig. 1) so that recipients can verify where it is really from, as well being encrypted (fig. 2) so that only the intended recipients can view it.

The way email encryption works is that a private key is created and only the sender and anyone the sender chooses will have and use the private key. One of the major benefits of encrypting emails is that, by obtaining and using an email certificate to digitally sign messages, it is possible to prevent spam and malware from being distributed in one’s name.

Read more about Why You Should Encrypt Your Email.

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Source:

Article from http://netsecurity.about.com/cs/emailsecurity/a/aa051004.htm

Images by Cheila Garcia, copyright 2011 - screen capture of signed and encrypted email exchange with Dr. Tawnya Means



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