Secure Business Communications with Email Encryption Technical Brief
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Dark Internet Mail Environment (DIME) Terminology, Architecture, Security, Data Formats, and Protocol Specifications
COVER DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this project to the National Security Agency. For better or worse, good or evil, what follows would not have been created without you. Because sometimes upholding constitutional ideas just isn’t enough; sometimes you have to uphold the actual Constitution. May god bless these United States of America. May she once again become the land of the free and home of the brave. Ladar Levison CONTENTS Cover ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Dedication ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Contents .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Figures ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Overview ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 12 Part 1: Abstract .................................................................................................................................................................................... -
MTA STS Improving Email Security.Pdf
Improving Email Security with the MTA-STS Standard By Brian Godiksen An Email Best Practices Whitepaper CONTENTS Executive Overview 03 Why Does Email Need Encryption in Transit? 04 The Problem with “Opportunistic Encryption” 07 The Anatomy of a Man-in-the-Middle Attack 08 The Next Major Step with Email Encryption: MTA-STS 10 What Steps Should Senders Take to Adopt MTA-STS? 11 About SocketLabs 12 Brian Godiksen Brian has been helping organizations optimize email deliverability since joining SocketLabs in 2011. He currently manages a team of deliverability analysts that consult with customers on best infrastructure practices, including email authentication implementation, bounce processing, IP address warm-up, and email marketing list management. Brian leads the fight against spam and email abuse at SocketLabs by managing compliance across the platform. He is an active participant in key industry groups such as M3AAWG and the Email Experience Council. You can read more of Brian’s content here on the SocketLabs website. ©2019 SocketLabs 2 Executive The Edward Snowden leaks of 2013 opened many peoples’ eyes to the fact that mass surveillance was possible by Overview intercepting and spying on email transmissions. Today, compromised systems, database thefts, and technology breaches remain common fixtures in news feeds around the world. As a natural response, the technology industry is rabidly focused on improving the security and encryption of communications across all platforms. Since those early days of enlightenment, industry experts have discussed and attempted a variety of new strategies to combat “pervasive monitoring” of email channels. While pervasive monitoring assaults can take many forms, the most prominent forms of interference were man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks. -
Zix Wins 5-Vendor Email Encryption Shootout Email Encryption Has Come a Long Way Since Our Last Review
Reprint THE CONNECTED ENTERPRISE MARCH 13, 2017 Zix wins 5-vendor email encryption shootout Email encryption has come a long way since our last review BY DAVID STROM, NETWORK WORLD terms of the flexibility of various encryption While these personal encryption products protocols used, along with DLP features that are improvements, there are also steps mail encryption products have are built-in along with a simple and single forward for the enterprise encryption email made major strides since we last pricing structure -- all things that Zix excels. user. Some products, such as Zix, hide the looked at them nearly two years All of these encryption products will cost encryption key process entirely from the ago. They have gotten easier you a few dollars a month per user. While user, so well that you might not even know to use and deploy, thanks to a that doesn’t sound like much, if you have that an encrypted message has passed from Ecombination of user interface and encryption an installation of several thousand users, sender to recipient. key management improvements, and are at the price tag could add up. However, the Others, such as Virtru and HPE/Voltage, the point where encryption can almost be alternative is having your email stream use identity-based encryption management called effortless on the part of the end user. available to anyone with a simple collection to verify a new recipient in their systems. Our biggest criticism in 2015 was that the of tools that even teens can master. Once a user new to these products products couldn’t cover multiple use cases, clicks on a confirmation email, they are such as when a user switches from reading Trends and bright spots forever allowed access, their emails are emails on their smartphone to moving to a In 2015, we said that gateways may have automatically decrypted, and there is no webmailer to composing messages on their fallen out of favor, but that trend has been need for any further effort to keep track of or Outlook desktop client. -
Stored Communications Act: Reform of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA)
Stored Communications Act: Reform of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) Richard M. Thompson II Legislative Attorney Jared P. Cole Legislative Attorney May 19, 2015 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R44036 Stored Communications Act: Reform of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA Summary In 1986, Congress enacted the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to both protect the privacy of an individual’s electronic communications and provide the government with a means for accessing these communications and related records. Although passed at the infancy of the Internet, the Stored Communications Act (SCA), which is part of ECPA, has been interpreted over the years to cover the content of emails, private Facebook messages, YouTube videos, and so-called metadata, or non-content information, connected to our Internet transactions (e.g., websites visited, to/from and time/date stamps on emails). The scope of the SCA is determined largely by the entities to which it applies, “electronic communication service” (ECS) providers and “remote computing service” (RCS) providers, as defined in the statute. It does not apply to government access to records held by a party to the communication. The SCA has two core components. First, it creates a broad bar against service providers voluntarily disclosing a customer’s communications to the government or others, subject to various exceptions, and second, it establishes procedures under which the government can require a provider to disclose customers’ communications or records. As to government access, ECPA utilizes a tiered system with different levels of evidence required depending on whether the provider is an ECS or RCS; whether the data sought is content or non-content; whether the email has been opened; and whether advance notice has been given to the customer. -
A Security Analysis of Email Communications
A security analysis of email communications Ignacio Sanchez Apostolos Malatras Iwen Coisel Reviewed by: Jean Pierre Nordvik 2 0 1 5 EUR 28509 EN European Commission Joint Research Centre Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen Contact information Ignacio Sanchez Address: Joint Research Centre, Via Enrico Fermi 2749, I - 21027 Ispra (VA), Italia E-mail: [email protected] JRC Science Hub https://ec.europa.eu/jrc Legal Notice This publication is a Technical Report by the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission’s in-house science service. It aims to provide evidence-based scientific support to the European policy-making process. The scientific output expressed does not imply a policy position of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of this publication. All images © European Union 2015, except: Frontpage : © bluebay2014, fotolia.com JRC 99372 EUR 28509 EN ISSN 1831-9424 ISBN 978-92-79-66503-5 doi:10.2760/319735 Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2015 © European Union, 2015 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. Printed in Italy Abstract The objective of this report is to analyse the security and privacy risks of email communications and identify technical countermeasures capable of mitigating them effectively. In order to do so, the report analyses from a technical point of view the core set of communication protocols and standards that support email communications in order to identify and understand the existing security and privacy vulnerabilities. On the basis of this analysis, the report identifies and analyses technical countermeasures, in the form of newer standards, protocols and tools, aimed at ensuring a better protection of the security and privacy of email communications. -
On the Security of Practical Mail User Agents Against Cache Side-Channel Attacks †
applied sciences Article On the Security of Practical Mail User Agents against Cache Side-Channel Attacks † Hodong Kim 1 , Hyundo Yoon 1, Youngjoo Shin 2 and Junbeom Hur 1,* 1 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea; [email protected] (H.K.); [email protected] (H.Y.) 2 School of Computer and Information Engineering, Kwangwoon University, Seoul 01897, Korea; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] † This paper is an extended version of our paper published in the 2020 International Conference on Information Networking (ICOIN), Barcelona, Spain, 7–10 January 2020. Received: 30 April 2020; Accepted: 26 May 2020; Published: 29 May 2020 Abstract: Mail user agent (MUA) programs provide an integrated interface for email services. Many MUAs support email encryption functionality to ensure the confidentiality of emails. In practice, they encrypt the content of an email using email encryption standards such as OpenPGP or S/MIME, mostly implemented using GnuPG. Despite their widespread deployment, there has been insufficient research on their software structure and the security dependencies among the software components of MUA programs. In order to understand the security implications of the structures and analyze any possible vulnerabilities of MUA programs, we investigated a number of MUAs that support email encryption. As a result, we found severe vulnerabilities in a number of MUAs that allow cache side-channel attacks in virtualized desktop environments. Our analysis reveals that the root cause originates from the lack of verification and control over the third-party cryptographic libraries that they adopt. In order to demonstrate this, we implemented a cache side-channel attack on RSA in GnuPG and then conducted an evaluation of the vulnerability of 13 MUAs that support email encryption in Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04 and 18.04. -
Efail: Breaking S/MIME and Openpgp Email Encryption Using Exfiltration Channels
Efail: Breaking S/MIME and OpenPGP Email Encryption using Exfiltration Channels Damian Poddebniak and Christian Dresen, Münster University of Applied Sciences; Jens Müller, Ruhr University Bochum; Fabian Ising and Sebastian Schinzel, Münster University of Applied Sciences; Simon Friedberger, NXP Semiconductors, Belgium; Juraj Somorovsky and Jörg Schwenk, Ruhr University Bochum https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity18/presentation/poddebniak This paper is included in the Proceedings of the 27th USENIX Security Symposium. August 15–17, 2018 • Baltimore, MD, USA ISBN 978-1-939133-04-5 Open access to the Proceedings of the 27th USENIX Security Symposium is sponsored by USENIX. Efail: Breaking S/MIME and OpenPGP Email Encryption using Exfiltration Channels Damian Poddebniak1, Christian Dresen1, Jens Muller¨ 2, Fabian Ising1, Sebastian Schinzel1, Simon Friedberger3, Juraj Somorovsky2, and Jorg¨ Schwenk2 1Munster¨ University of Applied Sciences 2Ruhr University Bochum 3NXP Semiconductors, Belgium Abstract is designed to protect user data in such scenarios. With end-to-end encryption, the email infrastructure becomes OpenPGP and S/MIME are the two prime standards merely a transportation service for opaque email data and for providing end-to-end security for emails. We de- no compromise – aside from the endpoints of sender or scribe novel attacks built upon a technique we call mal- receiver – should affect the security of an end-to-end en- leability gadgets to reveal the plaintext of encrypted crypted email. emails. We use CBC/CFB gadgets to inject malicious plaintext snippets into encrypted emails. These snippets S/MIME and OpenPGP. The two most prominent stan- abuse existing and standard conforming backchannels to dards offering end-to-end encryption for email, S/MIME exfiltrate the full plaintext after decryption. -
Cryptic Journalism: News Reporting of Encryption
Cryptic journalism: news reporting of encryption Einar Thorsen School of Journalism, English and Communication Bournemouth University United Kingdom [email protected] ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7126-7293 This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Digital Journalism on 19/10/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/21670811.2016.1243452 Abstract In light of Edward Snowden’s global surveillance disclosures, this article examines news discourses about online communication security and surveillance circumvention practices. It analyses 1,249 news reports mentioning encryption in The Guardian and The New York Times, covering a 3-year period from June 2012 to June 2015 (one year before and two years after the Snowden revelations). Whilst there was a marked increase in volume of news articles mentioning encryption post-Snowden, the context in which encryption is discussed has since shifted from an initial emphasis on "surveillance" towards "security" issues. However, the research found that greater news coverage of encryption did not necessarily mean an increase in depth of coverage, with most mentions of encryption vague and non-descript. In terms of source usage, the research finds an emphasis on private corporations in both publications analysed. This is problematic when many of the organisations allowed to speak on encryption were those accused of colluding with the US and UK Governments to aid covert mass surveillance - the likes of Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and so forth - thus providing them with a platform to exonerate themselves from the accusations. This contradictory depiction of communication security serves the status quo and prevents advancement of the “encrypted by default” communication practice called for by Snowden. -
The Next Generation Communications Privacy Act
ARTICLE THE NEXT GENERATION COMMUNICATIONS PRIVACY ACT ORIN S. KERR† In 1986, Congress enacted the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to regulate government access to Internet communications and records. ECPA is widely regarded as outdated, and ECPA reform is now on the Congressional agenda. At the same time, existing reform proposals retain the structure of the 1986 Act and merely tinker with a few small aspects of the statute. This Article offers a thought experiment about what might happen if Congress were to repeal ECPA and enact a new privacy statute to replace it. The new statute would look quite different from ECPA because overlooked changes in Internet technology have dramatically altered the assumptions on which the 1986 Act was based. ECPA was designed for a network world with high storage costs and only local network access. Its design reflects the privacy threats of such a network, including high privacy protection for real-time wiretapping, little protection for noncontent records, and no attention to particularity or jurisdiction. Today’s Internet reverses all of these assumptions. Storage costs have plummeted, leading to a reality of almost total storage. Even U.S.-based services now serve a predominantly † Fred C. Stevenson Research Professor, George Washington University Law School. This Article was supported by the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation Program on Demography, Technology and Criminal Justice at the Law Library of Congress, where the Author presently serves as a Scholar in Residence. The Author thanks Richard Salgado, Chris Soghoian, Al Gidari, Jim Dempsey, Marc Zwillinger, Chris Yoo, Eric Goldman, Edward Felten, Ryan Calo, Andrea Matwyshyn, Jerry Kang, Ramesh Ponnuru, and Gail Kent for their helpful comments, as well as Cynthia Jordan, Robert Newlen, and David Mao at the Law Library of Congress for their support. -
CPA-SC DESKTOP EMAIL ENCRYPTION 1.1 DOC Version 1.1
NCSC-1844117881-471 CPA SECURITY CHARACTERISTIC CPA-SC DESKTOP EMAIL ENCRYPTION 1.1 DOC Version 1.1 Crown Copyright 2018 – All Rights Reserved CPA Security Characteristics for CPA-SC Desktop Email Encryption 1.1 doc 17th October 2018 Document History Version Date Description 0.0 6th March 2012 Preparation for industry review 1.0 17th April 2012 Updates following industry review 1.1 25th October 2018 Amended to reflect formation of NCSC This Security Characteristic is derived from the following files File Name Version Desktop Email Encryption – v1.0.cxl 1.0 Common Email Encryption – v1.4.cxl 1.4 Common Libraries – v1.6.cxl 1.6 Crypt Libraries – v1.4.cxl 1.4 Hardware Libraries – v1.3.cxl 1.3 Soft copy location: NCSC-1844117881- 471 This document is authorised by: Deputy Technical Director (Assurance), NCSC This document is issued by NCSC For queries about this document please contact: CPA Administration Team NCSC, A2i, Hubble Road Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL51 0EX United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1242 221 491 Email: [email protected] The CPA Authority may review, amend, update, replace or issue new Scheme Documents as may be required from time to time. Page ii CPA Security Characteristics for CPA-SC Desktop Email Encryption 1.1 doc 17th October 2018 CONTENTS REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. iv I. OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................... 1 A. Product Aims ............................................................................................... -
Lightweight Encryption for Email
Lightweight Encryption for Email Ben Adida Susan Hohenberger Ronald L. Rivest MIT MIT MIT [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Abstract 1.1 Prior Key Management Strategies Email encryption techniques have been available for Public-key encryption has been around for 25 years. In more than a decade, yet none has been widely de- its basic form, it is well understood: a public key allows ployed. The problems of key generation, certification, for encryption, while an associated private (a.k.a. secret) and distribution have not been pragmatically addressed. key performs decryption. The complication lies in as- We recently proposed a method for implementing a sociating a public key with a user. How does Bob obtain Lightweight Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for email Alice’s public key? How can Bob be certain that the pub- authentication using recent developments in identity- lic key he has obtained is indeed Alice’s, and not some based cryptography and today’s existing Internet infras- eavesdropper’s? tructure. In classic public-key cryptosystems like RSA [11], El While this solution works well for email authentica- Gamal [7], or Cramer-Shoup [5], each user generates a tion, email encryption exhibits a different threat model keypair. The association between a public key and an that requires special treatment. In this work, we discuss identity is then certified by the digital signature of some how to achieve email encryption and present a realistic authority. With S/MIME [10], these certification author- deployment and adoption process, while respecting the ities form an organizational hierarchy. With PGP [14], current functionality and expectations of email. -
Email Encryption Isn't Enough
Email Encryption Isn’t Enough Five Best Practices to Safeguard Against 3rd Party Cyber Risk Executive Summary CISOs and other IT executives cringe when they think about an email’s journey across the internet, undergoing eavesdropping by criminals, companies and governments along the way. Or that it may sit in the 3rd party recipient’s email server for months, completely outside your control. Peers tell you about their non-compliance fines from breaches of personal information, while you worry about theft of intellectual property giving a competitor the edge. Many firms try to address these problems by encrypting their most sensitive communications but discover a myriad of shortcomings. You can’t give users a tool that prompts questions like, “What is my recipient’s public key and why do I need it?” You need secure email that still works like normal email, especially for 3rd party recipients who may be customers, clients, and partners in other organizations. The kicker: you can’t guarantee email privacy if your cloud provider has the encryption keys, or if you don’t properly govern and monitor your insiders. Embrace the following five best practices to go beyond encryption and fully safeguard your organization’s email privacy. SHARE TWEET SHARE 2 | www.accellion.com SECURE EMAIL BEST PRACTICE Ensure Employees Adopt Secure Email 1 Incorporate Simple Security and Governance into Users’ Workflows Security professionals abhor the risks of standard email traveling over the internet in the clear. You want standard, compliant encryption—AES-256 at rest and SSL/TLS in transit—to thwart scans by advertisers, malware and foreign powers.