Email Privacy and Privacy Risks - Essay Example

? ESSAY ON EMAIL PRIVACY By Location Introduction With advancement in technology, there is an increase in demand for computer-based communication applications. Email communication is one example of such computer-based communication platforms; others include internet and wide web programs. Currently, email dominates modern communication. In fact, the survey that was conducted by the Forrester Research Inc. shows that 98 percent of companies with over one thousand employees have internet access. All the companies with internet access use email as the main form of communication at the organization. Email is a very new concept in communication, and it is rapidly gaining popularity. According to Cliffon (2005), it is estimated that in America, up to 1.5 billion emails are exchanged annually. Email Privacy Most people are of the view that since the emails are more personal, they provide a good platform for people to discuss personal issues. This is never the case in most cases; in fact, emails have made communication to be less personal since privacy in communication through emails or telephones is easily compromised. It is always very hard to write personal things on the email because a third party may see them; hence, emails are greatly compromised in terms of privacy. According to Cliffon (2005), the hackers are able to crack passwords for emails and, therefore, get access to personal information of others. Hacking presents a very precarious situation because hackers may get access to critical information such as credit number of an individual or even password for an individual’s bank account thereby defrauding individuals of their lifetime investments. The internet is highly susceptible to malicious attacks. The process of composing an email to the time that it reaches the final user exposes information to several electronic dangers. Despite this reality, many people are usually oblivious of the many privacy flaws they are exposed to when dealing with email. Crawford (2008) says that most individuals tend to think that the one layer email protection by the use of password is always sufficient to guarantee email privacy yet the one layer password protection is not sufficient to protect the content of personal or business email. Privacy Risks Due to the apparent privacy hitches in email communication, users of email are exposed to a number of risks. The reason for this is that email is highly susceptible to both active and passive attacks. Passive threats vary from traffic analysis and release of message contents. On the other hand, active threats include replay, masquerade, and altering of the contents of the message. Currently, most emails are transmitted unencrypted and this presents the danger that some unscrupulous individuals other than the designated recipient can gain access to content of the email. Such unscrupulous individuals usually have some tools that they use to gain access to the contents of the email (Quigley, 2011). The idea of traffic analysis presents the danger of evading email privacy. Traffic analysis is a routine surveillance by government through monitoring of emails as a measure to counter terrorism as well a thwart any form of political eavesdropping or espionage. In as much as traffic analysis is justified on security grounds, this approach compromises on the privacy of emails since through the process, access to the private email messages of individuals or corporate is gained. The other potential risk with regard to email privacy is the possibility of altering and modification of the contents of the email. Using spoofing tools, unscrupulous individual can intercept an email message on transit or storage and then modify the contents of such messages. Rao and Upadhyaya (2009) argue that the other potential risk of email privacy is the issue of masquerading; it is possible for an individual to send an email in the name of another person or any corporation. Moreover, it is worth noting that email messages can be resend to individuals more than once. This possibility often leads to confusion, as well as ravaging reputation of an organization or an individual. The situation can even be worse if such an email contains critical applications such as reservations, registrations, and transfer of funds. Another risk presented by email privacy is the possibility of spoofing, which means that by the use Trojan horses, an individual can insert false message into an email system of an individual or organization, thereby ravaging the image of such an individual. Despite the many privacy risks discussed above, it is apparent that most industries do not apply attention to security of email, which is a pivotal communication channel used in the corporate world (Rule ?& Greenleaf, 2011). The fact that the email is communicated through several routers and servers means that it is predisposed to both virtual and physical eavesdropping. Any hacker who taps into such information can access unencrypted email. Measures to Enhance Email Privacy Security measures by individual to thwart email security are not enough to prevent the various security risks. This is because recipients or senders of emails usually forward one email to more than one recipient especially if the contents of the email are business in nature and, therefore, meant for more than one recipient. According to Sullivan (2005), the fact that email is sent to more than one recipient compromises the emails privacy in that personal details of the sender such as email address, full names of the sender, and phone numbers can be revealed. There are several measures, which can be used to guarantee email security. One such measure includes data encryption, it is important that a certain level of privacy, and email pathway be considered by ensuring that all connections are secured. There are two measures that can be used to attain data encryption, one such measure include electronic envelope, which involves encrypting the message by the use of tools such as OpenPGP (Sullivan, 2005). The other approach involves sending to a recipient a message that do not contain any sensitive information such as email address, full names of the sender, and phone numbers, which might compromise the security of such information. Several simple measures can be undertaken by individuals to improve the security of email. Individuals should always be in a position to ensure that they have password for their emails. Such a move means that it is not easy to maliciously gain access to the email of another individual; it is also possible to send email without revealing their address. This is made achievable because when a blind carbon copy is used, it is not possible to see the details of the recipient who has sent the message (Sullivan, 2005). As a security measure, it is also of paramount importance that the sender of email should always verify the email fast, especially when the email is being sent to more than one individual. The emails should be sent to the right recipient so that there is no possibility of sending it to the wrong recipient. The fact that the sender’s email is secure does not cushion the sender from privacy flaws especially if the message is being sent to the recipient with no secured email. It is important, therefore, that before the sender sends a message to the recipient they should ensure that the recipient secures the email so that both participants are not exposed to any security and privacy violation. Quigley (2011) says that the other simple measure that can be adopted to ensure that there is email security is through ensuring that the email is sent to the right person. For instance, every time an email is sent, when the name of the recipient is typed several, suggestions usually come up; it is up to the sender to decide the right recipient for the message. Conclusion Email has massive benefits to individuals and corporates because it is an important form of communication. Therefore, it is important that the email privacy and security be upheld at all times. The fact that email message is sent electronically through several rooters and serves makes it susceptible to privacy violation by unscrupulous internet criminals. It is up to the individuals and corporates who are using email services to ensure that they resort to deliberate measures to guarantee the security and privacy of the email messaging. References Cliffon W., 2005. Privacy Preserving Data Mining. New York: McGraw Hill. Crawford, M., 2010. The New Office Etiquette. Canada: Canadian Business Press. Englehardt, E. & Pritchard, M., 2009. The Ethical Challenges of Academic Administration. New York: Springer. Garfinkel, S.,2010. Security and Usability: Designing Secure Systems that People Can Use. New York: O'Reilly Media, Inc. Quigley, M., 2011. ICT Ethics and Security in the 21st Century. New York: McGraw Hill. Rao, H. & Upadhyaya S., 2009. Information Assurance: Security and Privacy Services. New Jersey: John Willey and Sons. Spinello,R.A., 2010. Cyberethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace. New York: Prentice Hall. Stamatello,G., 2007. Computer ethics: A Global Perspective. New York: Springer. Read More