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How_Safe_is_Your_Success_Part_8_of_8
| How Safe is Your Success? Part 8 of 8
"How Safe is Your Success" is a series of eight articles. Each
article addresses a different aspect of a universal problem
which is of particular importance to those who do business
on-line. Most Internet users are at least aware there are
dangers "out there", but few appreciate the real extent of those
dangers, the possible (even likely) consequences, or the best,
most practical and least expensive means of countering them.
This series is intended to at least provide some useful
awareness of the situation.
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Part 8 - Safeguarding Correspondence
Many people the world over have a very legitimate need to engage
in important and sensitive correspondence with others. But,
because of the sensitivity issue, they worry about the security
of eMail and agonize over ways to ensure their correspondence
can't be intercepted. If you are one of these people, I'm sorry
for this bucket of very cold water I am now tipping over your
hopes and aspirations:
*** There is no way to be completely certain *** *** your eMail
can't be intercepted ***
But wait — don't slink off dejected! I do have an answer for you.
What if it simply didn't matter if someone else could look at
your correspondence? What if, with not much more effort than a
couple of mouse clicks, you could turn your very sensitive eMail
contents into an unintelligible jumble of characters that no spy
could ever make sense of? And what if your addressee, and ONLY
your addressee, could turn that jumble back into the original
message with the same ease and celerity? Security against
unauthorized viewing would no longer be an issue — in fact you
could post the message on your corner store bulletin board
without a care in the world.
Of course I'm talking about encryption, but don't sigh and turn
away! If you knew about this sort of encryption you'd already be
using it, because I guarantee it really is as easy as I just
described.
Everyone who understands the effectiveness and the potential of
encryption will tell you that it is — in the personal and
commercial arenas at least — an incredibly effective resource
that is largely going to waste. While this article is
specifically concerned with securing eMail, the subject has much
greater implications, even at the personal-use level. For
example, we all know we shouldn't keep sensitive information
such as online banking and credit card details on our PCs, but
we do anyway. Right? Don't worry — I'm not going to lecture you
about the dangers of keeping such information on your computer.
But I am going to tell you that unless you take certain
precautions you ARE going to regret it sooner or later.
Oh, and before I get on with the specifics … if you are
wondering why on earth any honest person would need to protect
their eMail with encryption, consider this:
Any eMail you send can be read by at least the following people:
- anyone employed by your Internet Service Provider (ISP); -
anyone employed by the addressees ISP; - operators and their
employees of any of the Internet routers (possibly dozens of
them) that your eMail data passes through en route to your
addressee.
Also, there is an excellent list of scenarios discussed, with
many examples, at the following website. Please do have a look
at it — I think it will open your eyes wide, as almost everyone
can find some variation of one of these reasons that applies to
them. http://HackersNightmare.com?res=WhyEncrypt
While grossly underutilized, encryption is nevertheless a very
mature technology with defined standards but — and here's the
big drawback — it has always been difficult and complex to
implement for people with little technical aptitude or training.
Fortunately, that is no longer a good reason not to implement
encryption on your PC, if only so it's at least there and
readily available if/when you need it.
When I decided that my computer and Internet security Bible "The
Hacker's Nightmare" would not be complete without coverage of
encryption, I was acutely aware of the obstacles. The
implementation difficulties concerned me greatly because this
was a book aimed squarely at educating and protecting
non-experts, thus solutions that were complex to implement
and/or maintain and/or use were not acceptable.
However it did not make any sense at all to settle for anything
less than a global standard that could be readily implemented by
anyone. Proprietary implementations were out. To cut a long
story short (the long version can be found in "The Hacker's
Nightmare") I searched and tested and trialed and eventually
discovered an excellent yet inexpensive product that enforced a
very high degree of security, conformed to globally accepted
standards, yet was easy to install and use.
The encryption chapter in The "The Hacker's Nightmare" was so
well accepted by people who suddenly became aware of the value
of encryption that I decided to hive that chapter off into a
separate book for people who for some reason didn't want the
full security Bible. I called it "Code Rings & Secret
Handshakes: The Email Encryption Guide". That title is a bit of
a misnomer because the Guide tackles both eMail and File/folder
encryption as well, but the initial focus is on eMail protection.
Don't worry — I'm not going to compel you to buy one of my books
to find out what encryption software I eventually settled on,
use myself and highly recommend to everyone. Just jump to the
link below, provide your name and eMail address, select the
product you are interested in (you should choose FileAssurity
OpenPGP) and shortly thereafter you'll receive an eMail with
download instructions. Here's the link:
http://HackersNightmare.com?res=ArticsoftTrial
Please Note that I do not recommend trialing the Lite version of
the software. Lite is missing several features that I think
you'll find very useful, and the small price difference is just
not worth the sacrifice of those features. The detailed
tutorials in my books deal with features NOT found in the Lite
version.
I should emphasize that you do not need either of my books to
use this software, but the less expert you are with "computer
stuff" the more valuable you will find the detailed tutorials.
Also, owners of either "The Hacker's Nightmare" or "Code Rings &
Secret Handshakes" are eligible for a $15 discount on the
registered version of the encryption software package.
Well that's the last of this eight-part series "How Safe Is Your
Success". I hope you have found the articles informative and
useful. I welcome contact from you on related matters,
suggestions for future articles, or your thoughts on how this
series might be improved. Please don't hesitate to contact me
through the form at: http://HackersNightmare.com?res=Contact
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About the author:
Bill Hely is an Australian technologist, consultant and author
whose professional focus has been on advising and supporting
small business operators in IT and Office Productivity - and
rescuing them when they didn't heed his advice the first time
around. He is the author of several books on technology for the
business person, including the Bible of Internet and PC security
"The Hacker's Nightmare" - http://HackersNightmare.com
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