Secure E-mail (Using Encryption)
Some types of encryption are:
- TLS or Transport Layer Security
&
- Identity Based Cryptography
TLS was created by netscape. TLS is a cyptographic protocol that provides secure communications on the internet for such things
as web browsing, email, internet faxing, instant messaging and other data transfers. This means that
TLS will make sure that what you send over the internet will be kept safe and it will
go to the person you intended to send the e-mail, data, or fax to.
Identity based cryptography is a type of public key cryptography in which the public key of a user is some unique information
of the user. For example, someone's e-mail adress. The first identity-based cryptosystem was a signature scheme developed by
by Adi Shamir in 1984, which allowed users to verify digital signatures using only public information such as the user's identifier.
What is at stake?
When someone sends a file or an email over the internet, they expect that it gets sent to the right person. But what if someone got a hold of some very important information you sent to a worker or your boss. That person would now have the email and who knows where else it goes after that. This is where encryption comes in. When you send an email to someone, the computer knows automatically that it is supposed to go to that person and that person only. But if in the rare case that someone else gets a hold of that email through a hack, the file would either not open proprely or will show different words and letters so that the hacker will not see the original email. With encryption, the email or file will only open on the recievers email adress or account.
Encryption Laws
The laws of encryption are basic privacy laws. If there were no laws of encryption, everyone would have a right to look at someone elses private information or documents. Just like the law against opening someone elses mail. It is against the law to open anyones mail but your own. With encryption laws, no one is able to see an email that hasn't been sent to them. If a person does get a hold of an email or document that wasn't adressed to him/her, the email will not show properly for privacy reasons.
How does Encryption affet us?
Encryption affects us in many ways. First off, if we didn't have encryption, files, documents and important emails would be stolen by hackers. When they hack our emails it makes it easier for them to find out information about the reciever or sender of the file. Not having encryption would make using the internet very dangerous.
Some ideas for resolving the issue (if the encryption is hacked), is to sell or make a product that helps protect you from hackers, like a spyware or a special security file or cd you can easily download on your computer.
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