Mail correspondence security.

Mail correspondence - is an essential part of Internet. That is self-evident. Whatever You do, You can`t do it without mail. Moreover, now there even appeared HYIPs working exclusively via e-mail. We told You about ways of avoiding problems with trespassers with the help of special safety programs - antivirus software and firewalls. Now let`s talk of securing Your correspondence. Particularly of the free mail services safety, since most of the users use it for their mailing needs.

So, most of customers use free mail services. These are yahoo!, msn, mail.com, Mailvault, gmail.com and other world famous ones. Of course, every customer may have his own local free mail services in the country where he (she) lives, though it makes no big difference. Just the name does. When You decide to acquire some free mail service, remember one rule. It`s mentioned in all the agreement terms, which are signed with the mail service. "The company that provides free mail service IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING." Not many users pay attention to this piece of information. Though, they should. Then, when problems occur, they start to write some kind of irate mails to the authorities and demand responsibility. Though there can`t be any responsibility. You may ask why? That`s because the authorities of the free mail service ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING. What kind of things may happen for the authorities not to be responsible? The list is simple enough. Message loss, spam, viruses` expansion, wiretap and anything that may take into one`s head, can happen to free mail service user. The investors are especially aware of spam and virus problems. And nobody accounts for that.

Why do the problems occur? In some way, usually via public boards or via special "campaigns", aimed at collecting e-mail addresses, Your address falls into spam mailing lists. You should have heard about that. There are, for example, one million mails, included into these kinds of lists. In the same way the lists, mailing viruses to Internet users, appear. Trespassers strive for spreading their virus ASAP, to as much area as it`s possible. That`s why they put up money into that. Your mail "provider" doesn`t put up money, cause You don`t pay him. Hence no protection at all. You may make as many complaints to the admin as You want, nothing will change.

But even if it happens quite often, it mostly depends not on the admin but the watchfulness of a user himself. You may expect other problems, the most terrible of them - mails "non-receipt". I.e. You have been written, though You haven`t received anything. It happens. For example, on some free mail services, such as MSN, there is a special safety filter, "filtering out" a large amount of really useful mail. And You , being a FREE service user, can do nothing about that.

Especially popular nowadays is Safemail. As if it`s the safest mail service. What can the service like that keep from? From wiretap, from stealing passwords or anything else. Most likely it`s nothing but an advertising artifice. First of all, everything, we are talking about, doesn`t happen so often (apart from viruses and spam). Secondly, it will cost too much to set up protection in the service, provided for free. Saying that difficulties don`t occur too often, we don`t want to spur You on choosing free service. Just the other way round. Actually, the situation (fortunately) arises that all the difficulties described above - is not common just for free services. Or else, no one would use them.

But… If You really want to work, having no problems at all and have a service provider in the person of organization, taking good care of the quality of mail, free services are not recommended. Yes, quite often it happens that all the things described above "happen to others". Though, if You have passwords, stored in Your mailbox, or any letter, containing some important information is being trapped, or Your mailbox, being in use for quite a long time, falls into the lists for sending spam - no one can help You, and You may say good-bye to Your business. Once again about Safe Mail. One thing happened with them. One of the customers received no mails. No mails at all. No matter what services they were sent from. One mail to the Customers Care, another… no response. They are not responsible for that. Suppose, Safe Mail - is really the safest mail, but it`s a FREE service. And if You joined it, no insults afterwards.

The things, absolutely different happen with the services that are not free of charge. Even if You were using any of free services and then changed to an not free one, the difference is to the fore. IF Safe Mail gave no response to a person, mentioned above means nothing here. If a person pays money for using a mailbox, the service IS REQUIRED to guarantee its functioning. They will spend time on Your data, restore it and transfer to other boxes, if needed. They will set Your filter up just the way You want it to be, they will do everything to keep You from spammers attacks, they will protect You with other programs and… besides, they will certainly provide Your mailbox with advanced technologies and features. At customer`s option. Id depends on how much money You are going to pay. Infinite sizes, different control options, additional antivirus software and built-in encoders. Paying for the mail service You start to be a customer, not a free user, You are taken care of as a customer. And, being a customer You have Your rights. That`s the difference, which can sometimes lead to tragic stories with sorrowful finishing.

And, to finish with, some words about mail protection programs. First of all, encoding. The most widespread is PGP encoder (www.pgp.com). It`s very easy to use it. You have a unique key, and You give it to anyone, You like. To open the mail, a key should be used. A person You are in correspondence with, has the same key and he gives it to You. Even if a trespasser traps Your message, he won`t know what it was all about. It`s better to use a protection like that even on a not free service. We, investors, operate with important information very often to risk it. Even secure connection is not always guaranteed.

The second - antivirus software. We have told a lot of times about that. Opening a letter via web interface, You get in contact with PC. There are viruses, expanded via jpg pictures! So, antivirus, is like a prayer - indispensable condition for the security and using ANY mail service. Finally, mail program. It matters to some extent. It`s not so important as choosing a browser or antivirus. It is a question of convenience and personal likes… Though, we`ll speak about that in the next issue.

See You.

Author David Lowery