| Are
you as secure as You Think You Are?
Have You Ever......
- Checked
your email using a POP email client?
(ie. Outlook, Outlook Express,Mozilla
Firebird)
- Been
to a website that says “http://” in
the beginning of the address?
Email
over POP and regular web browsing provide
fast and easy communications that help
many of us in the busy world that we
live in. The problem, however, is that
neither of these communications are
secure. Every time you check your email
over POP or go to a website that says
“http://” in the address bar, you are
transmitting every piece of data across
the internet in plain text. That means
that each time you check your email,
your username and password are being
sent over the internet in plain text
for anyone in the wrong mindset to capture
and use at their own will. Every single
time you go to a website that is “http://”
in the address, any information you
enter is sent in plain text over the
internet.
Fortunately
for web browsing, a protocol called
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) was created.
This is in use every time you see “https://”
in your address bar. SSL is a protocol
that encrypts the data being transmitted
between you and the server you are communicating
with. This should be used on any website
where you are transmitting personal
data.
Every
time we open Outlook and check a POP
email account, our email address, password,
and even our emails are being transmitted
over the internet in plain text.
Walser
Technology Group, Inc. offers hosted
email solutions using Linux and Q-mail.
We offer IMAP, POP, and POPS options.
POPS takes a normal POP session and
wraps it in an SSL encrypted tunnel
for completely secure communications
between you and our server.
See
our example below extracted from a test
account on our server.
Regular
POP Session
TCP 2915 > pop3 [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=1
Win=65535 Len=0
POP Response: +OK <13701.1115901957@email.wtechgroup.com>
POP Request: USER test@wtechgroup.com
TCP pop3 > 2915 [ACK] Seq=46 Ack=27
Win=5840 Len=0
POP Response: +OK
POP Request: PASS testPASSWORD
POP Response: +OK
Secure
POPS Session
TLS Client Hello
TCP 995 > 2948 [ACK] Seq=1
Ack=103 Win=5840 Len=0
TLS Server Hello, Certificate,
Server Hello Done
TLS Client Key Exchange,Change
Cipher Spec, Encrypted Handshake Message
TLS Change Cipher Spec, Encrypted
Handshake Message
TLS [TCP Retransmission]Change
Cipher Spec, Encrypted Handshake Message
TCP 2948 > 995 [ACK] Seq=285
Ack=1163 Win=64373 Len=0
For
a full view of the complete session
between client and server please click
here
Contact
us today for more information about
securing your email.
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