KenWid10 asked the Antivirus & Security Software forum how best to send encrypted information to someone over the Internet.
You should never, ever just email credit card numbers, passwords, or
other private information. You don't know how many servers the message
will pass through between your computer and the recipient's, or who has
access to those servers. Email is only slightly more private than a
billboard. (A slight exaggeration, but you get the point.)
A truly private message must be encrypted before it leaves your
computer, and remain encrypted until the recipient receives it. To
complicate things further, you can't assume that the recipient is any
more tech savvy than that uncle who freaks out when you open a new tab
on his browser.
Here are two ways to safely send private information over the Internet:
Email an encrypted .zip file
You can put the sensitive information into a file (of any format the
recipient can handle), then compress the file into a password-protected,
encrypted .zip archive file, and email that to the recipient. This
works, with two caveats:
The .zip format's default encryption standard, ZipCrypto, could probably
be hacked by a duck. And while most up-to-date zip programs support
much stronger, 256-bit AES encryption, not everyone has one of these
programs. Most users rely on Windows's native .zip support, which
doesn't support AES.
Both you and your recipient will need a .zip program that supports AES.
And no, you can't create an encrypted .exe file and mail that; many
email programs won't allow you to send or receive .exe files.
Among the programs that support AES are the industry standard WinZip and the free 7-zip.
Be sure to use AES encryption when mailing confidential information in a .zip file. Shown here in 7-Zip.
The other caveat: You and the recipient have to share a your password, and emailing the password isn't safe.
The best passwords for this situation include shared information. For
instance, if you're sending tax forms to your accountant, you can use
your social security number, which he or she already has.
Skip email altogether and use the cloud
Or you can try a solution that doesn't require special software or a
shared password. To my mind, the best such solution is a cloud-based
service called Sendinc.
To use this service, both you and the recipient must have Sendinc
accounts. Joining is easy, and unless your messages are larger than 10MB
each, or you're sending more than 20 of them a day, a free membership
will do. If you send a message to someone who doesn't have a membership,
they'll be invited to sign up.
Sendinc uploads and downloads encrypted information via SSL (the same
technology used by banks and shopping sites). Your messages remain
encrypted on the Sendinc server, with a unique password per message,
until they are destroyed after seven days. During that time, they will
only be decrypted for delivery (via SSL) to the recipient.
But whatever method you choose, remember that your security is only as
good as your password. Come up with a strong one that no one is likely
to guess.
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