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E-mail is certainly not secure. While
you may believe that the use of a password makes your business
private, you should be aware that sending information without
encryption has been likened to sending postcards through the mail.
Your message is totally open to interception by anyone along the way.
You may believe that your personal e-mail is not incriminating
and does not contain content that you must keep secret, and you may
be right. But there are many common situations, where users have a
legitimate need for security both to protect that information and to
insure that information is not tampered with: Consumers placing
orders with credit cards via the Internet, journalists protecting
their sources, therapists protecting client files, businesses
communicating trade secrets to foreign branches, ATM transactions,
political dissenters, or whistle-blowers -- all are examples of why
encryption may be needed for e-mail or data files, and why it might
be necessary to create a secure environment through its
use.
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