In response to growing security concerns among professional and business email users, anti-spam service provider OnlyMyEmail.com has now enabled Secured Sockets Layer (SSL encryption) for all of their WebMail clients.
In the past, SSL has been primarily used to protect the transmission of financial and other sensitive data (such as credit card information) through web pages.
Today, with the nearly ubiquitous use of email in modern day business, more and more professionals who are using email are also including private and confidential information in their day-to-day correspondence.
In addition, as widely reported, the release of the Google DeskTop Search tool creates greater security and privacy risks for users of any Webmail services. Because the Google DeskTop Search keeps separate copies of email viewed through Webmail systems, any messages sent or received in this manner may later be retrieved by anyone with access to the computer used.
In response to the increase in business use of email for transmitting sensitive materials and the new risks posed by the Google Desktop Search, effective immediately all log-in attempts and email sent or viewed through OnlyMyEmail’s Web-based email system will now be encrypted with server-to-server SSL certification.
No additional user action is required to activate this new feature as this security setting is now enabled by default throughout the OnlyMyEmail.com Web site.
By contrast, most competing providers of WebMail, such as Hotmail, do not offer any opportunity to use SSL. Some providers do offer SSL as an option during the initial login process (Yahoo) but do not SSL encrypt the actual viewing and composing of private email messages.
While SSL encryption will enhance security for preventing emails from being intercepted by third parties, in order to fully protect messages from being retrieved by the Google Desktop Search, users will need to disable the indexing of “SSL Web Pages” within Google’s Preference settings.
The offering of SSL WebMail by default for the user’s entire WebMail session appears to be entirely unique to OnlyMyEmail.com, though other major WebMail providers can be expected to eventually follow suit.
murdok | Breaking eBusiness News
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