Gmail security concerns provoke moves toward strict measures
Monday, January 18, 2010
After an attack by Chinese cyber criminals penetrated the network security and email systems of U.S. corporations and Chinese human rights activists living abroad, Gmail was quick to announce that it would bolster its security by making HTTPS access the default method.
However, some experts say that webmail connections can be made even more secure with the use of several third-party products designed to block common methods used to illicitly access personal information. CNET's Stephen Shankland reports that products like GNU Privacy Guard, Thunderbird, and Enigmail can keep webmail out of the reach of most cyber criminals.
Shankland writes that these and other products can encrypt email messages and make them largely invulnerable to unauthorized access, but that encryption can pose challenges of its own. Indexing and searching - one of Gmail's main selling points - will not work with encrypted messages, for example.
For private users, then, encryption technology may not be the way to go, but corporations dealing with sensitive data might give it a look, experts say.
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