SMTP encryption

[Valleysboy1978]

All I want to know is....is SMTP mail encrypted?

We send an automatic mail using SMTP but are not entirely sure if it's sufficiently encrypted
Any comments would be great

[BodwadUK]

I dont think so but I could be wrong

[Valleysboy1978]

Any ideas as to where I can find info on this?

[BodwadUK]

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/SMTP.html
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc821.html
http://cr.yp.to/smtp.html
http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/Topics/94.htm


Do any of those help?

[dj4uk]

By default no its not encrypted - emails are just text files really. There are ways of encrypting mail though.

DJ

[Valleysboy1978]

How?

[dj4uk]

If you look in your preferences for your mail client you'll find advanced settings for each account that include security settings to allow encryption. I think you need to be issued a certificate to use this feature though.

There are also third party applications like PGP - they do services for near enough everything!

HTH

DJ

[Valleysboy1978]

So effectively you're saying SMTP does not enctypt mails? Only third-party products such as Outlook, Lotus Notes etc?

Pretty much as I thought but thanks for the confirmation guys!

[visualAd]

So effectively you're saying SMTP does not enctypt mails? Only third-party products such as Outlook, Lotus Notes etc?

Pretty much as I thought but thanks for the confirmation guys!

SMTP = Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

So, it doesn't encrypt emails, but .. there are extensions to the SMTP protocol such as STARTTLS, TLS and SASL which enable you to send the email encrypted. These extensions rely on the SMTP server supporting them and just require a minor change to settings in your email client.

You can also physically encrypt the email before sending it and provided the recipient has the means to decrypt the email; i.e: the software and necessary keys, they can read the email too.

You can usually check if your ISP supports secure email transfer and what settings you need to change in your email client by looking at their help pages. But, sending the email via a secure connection does not mean that the recipient will receive it via secure SMTP. So if you really want to ensure a secure transit I would use client side encryption too.

Here are some links you may find useful which relate to Outlook:

http://www.slipstick.com/addins/security.htm
http://www.ust.hk/itsc/pki/smail/oeencrypted.html
http://www.newbie.org/reference/email04p.html