Everything You Don't Know About Email Encryption Software

On the 30^th of April 2015, a finance executive working at Mattel (yes, the ones who make Barbie and Hot Wheels) received an email from the new CEO. It was a simple request to wire $3 million to a vendor in China. For a company evaluated at $7 billion, transactions like these are routine. Like any of us, the executive wanted to make a favorable impression on the new CEO and quickly got the necessary approvals to make the payment.

Transaction done? Check.

Bossman impressed? Check.

However, a few hours later, the newly appointed CEO stated that he had never issued such a wire transfer! The poor executive had been the victim of impeccably well-timed email fraud. The phishing email had served its purpose. Namely, helping fraudsters impersonate themselves as trustworthy entities to obtain sensitive information – or in this case, $3 million.

Emails are quite infamous for being the weakest link for businesses affected by data breaches, phishing and cyber-attacks. The main reason is that, by default, email service providers don’t provide encryption – even Gmail and Outlook – and thus we require a third-party software or tool. Well, we’re here to reveal one such robust tool against nefarious cybercriminals – Email Encryption Software.

Join us as we decrypt what Email Encryption Software is, its working, benefits, history and what is its potential future.

What Is Email Encryption Software?

Email Encryption Software is an application that encrypts the contents of an email while it is in transit, so it cannot be read by anyone other than the intended recipient. The software uses various techniques (such as public and private key encryption or a digital signing) to encrypt the email and then decrypt it on the recipient’s device. Even if a hacker were to intercept the message, it would be a bunch of gibberish – not much different than your three-year-old’s scrawls and scribbles on the walls!

Talking about a three-year old, how old do you think Email Encryption Software is? 

How Old Is Email Encryption Software?

In 1991, Phil Zimmermann developed the very first Email Encryption Software named Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). At the time, Zimmermann was an anti-nuclear activist. He intended to create PGP encryption so that like-minded people could communicate and share files securely, without exposing any personal information. PGP has since become the encryption standard for email security protocol; specifically, to encrypt and decrypt emails and attached files.

PGP's popularity stemmed from two components. The first was that it was free to use and quickly became popular among users who wanted to communicate securely and discreetly. Second, PGP employed both private and public-key encryption techniques, allowing users who had never even met to exchange encrypted messages - all they needed was the username or as we now call it, "email address."

PGP was also used to verify the identity of the sender of an email. Using a digital signature, the recipient of an email could verify if even one character of the message has been modified in transit. This would mean that the sender isn't who they claim to be, that they tried to forge a digital signature or that the message has been altered. That's awesome - thanks, Phil!

Soon, the PGP protocol gave rise to the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and its successor, Transport Layer Security (TLS), that provided an encrypted communication channel between two devices over the internet. While using TLS and SSL protocols, senders and recipients needed to be aware that these functions are being used to encrypt emails. That is where StartTLS came into play. It is a command that informs the server that an email client (even one running in a web browser such as Gmail and Proton) wants a secure connection to send across information.

However, the real question is, do businesses even need Email Encryption Software if they don't work with sensitive data?

Do Businesses Really Need Email Encryption Software?

Short answer - yes! We live in a digital world (duh!). Most of our daily correspondence is via digital medium - be it video call, chat or email. Businesses have stuck with the good 'ol email, thanks to its ease of use and reliability - no other means of communication is used more in the workplace than email. However, unencrypted emails may be viewed by sneaky third parties, which can lead to valuable data being leaked or worse, sent to your business competitor. Plus, emails often include attachments, which can be intercepted and read by hackers enroute. All these reasons make email communication a hackers' favorite target to create chaos.

Moreover, most of our digital accounts (from social media to banking to data backups) use our email ID. If breached, it can give malicious actors access to all your personal data. Now that's a scary thought!

Knowing this, businesses realized the need to protect not only the contents of emails on their internal network but ensure that the email recipients are verified. Remember the poor finance executive at Mattel who transferred $3 million based on an email that she assumed was sent by her boss? Well, with Email Encryption Software she would have been notified that the email did not have the CEO's unique digital signature - and maybe the whole fiasco could have been avoided.

Hence, Email Encryption Software provides a practical business solution against email piracy by encrypting sensitive content to make it unreadable for unauthorized third parties. Moreover, it helps verify whether the sender of an email is genuine or not.

Surely, you're wondering how it does that? Well, that's what we're talking about next!

How Does Email Encryption Software Work?

Let's recap - Email Encryption Software provides businesses with a secure communication channel by encrypting outbound emails and decrypting inbound ones. So, how does it work? To achieve this, both the sender and recipient are required to have two cryptographic keys (a long, unique string of characters) - one of which is public, while the other is private.

The private key is kept on your device and is known only to you; however, your public key is known to everyone. Let's say you need to send a confidential mail to your boss (let's call him Mike). You (sender) already know Mike's (recipient) public key. When you send the mail, the software uses Mike's public key to encrypt the email. However, the associated private key required to decrypt it, is only stored - you guessed it - on Mike's device. Hence, only bossman Mike can read the decrypted mail!

Similarly, Mike's reply will be encrypted using your public key, however, it needs your private key to be able to decrypt from ciphertext to plaintext, which only you can read. No matter how many recipients your email has, the encryption process won't change.

Hey Mike, What Are The Types Of Email Encryption Software?

So, if you're wondering about the types of Email Encryption Software - we're here to tell you that there are two basic types - S/MIME and PGP/MIME. We know they look terrifying and jargon-y but allow us to explain the TechDogs' way!

S/MIME (or Secure/ Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) is the more common type of email encryption and is pre-built into most devices that allow you to check your mail - yes, that includes your smart fridge. A centralized authority chooses the encryption algorithm for the S/MIME since it is employed by popular web-based email providers such as Apple and Outlook. That is another reason for S/MIME encryption's popularity!

PGP/MIME (Pretty Good Privacy/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) encrypts and digitally signs an email in its entirety, i.e., including all file attachments, which makes it even harder for hackers to make sense of the mail if they were to intercept it. This type of encryption relies on a decentralized model which was created to address the vulnerabilities of plaintext messages. PGP/MIME gives you more freedom and control over how well your emails are secured but necessitates using a third-party encryption tool.

Benefits Of Using Email Encryption Software

We're sure that by now you have realized the most critical advantage offered by Email Encryption Software - yeah, it's your fundamental right to privacy! Every email you send or receive (along with its attachments) is protected from anyone seeing them except the recipient.

You also don't have to worry about surveillance through email as the software provides end-to-end encryption and protects sensitive data such as your social security number, personally identifiable information (PII), bank account details and other financial information from being exposed.

Another significant benefit of using Email Encryption Software is security. Businesses can use it in conjunction with a digital signature, which verifies that you are the sender of the email and not a cybercriminal trying to infect their computer with malware. Digital signature delivers an additional layer of security by ensuring that an email sent from your address is not tampered.

As helpful that is, it's no match for what's coming down the road!

Future Of Email Encryption Software

Remember when we talked about StartTLS - the protocol that informs an email server that it needs a secure connection to transfer information? In the future, it will be standard practice for all email servers to need a StartTLS connection and refuse email delivery if one isn't available. This would guarantee that only encrypted emails are exchanged over an email server. Concurrently, in the next decade, IPSEC (Internet Protocol Security) will become commonplace for emails. It is a secured network protocol which first verifies and then encrypts data packets to provide secure communication between two networks.

The ultimate objective of email security (and information security in general) will be addressed by developers of Email Encryption Software: to ensure that the right information reaches the right individuals (and only them!) at the right time. To assist organizations in achieving this goal - complete control over confidential business information - new functionalities will soon be added to the Email Encryption Software.

Conclusion

Although the most commonly used mode of communication, email, is the most vulnerable domain in corporate communication. Without Email Encryption Software, your business data is susceptible to exposure. In fact, according to HelpNetSecurity, a site focused on information security advice, data is most at risk on email, with 83% of all organizations experiencing email data breaches in 2020.

Without end-to-end security provided by Email Encryption Software, your emails can (and will) be intercepted by hackers or corporate spies. Even if you don't regularly share sensitive information through email, the damage caused by unauthorized email access can be disastrous. In today's modern digital era, running a business without Email Encryption Software is a complete no-go; you might as well use a pigeon-carrier system!