Hackproof Email

By Joseph Sinclair

Your email travels over local transmissions twice and over the Internet three times before it reaches the recipient. That’s a lot of exposure. Your email is the cornerstone of your cybersecurity. If someone hacks into your email and steals your identity, it exposes your entire cyber presence to fraud or digital mischief. What can you do to make your use of email secure from hacking?
Since there are multiple opportunities for a hacker to hack into your email transmission, no one defense fits all. You need multiple defenses. The book focuses on the unique suite of RMail secure email services, which provides:
•Several defenses, which enable you to make your email secure along the entire email path from you to your recipient.
•A suite of secure email services that work with all other email systems and email software. You never have to worry about compatibility with recipients.
•Special services that are very useful to large and small businesses and even individuals.
With RMail services you can continue to use your current email service and software. The basic use of RMail services is free, and the extensive use is at a nominal cost charged by the amount of use.
The ebook covers why and how to make your email secure using RMail services. With all the headlines about Yahoo, Equifax, Adobe, Target, AOL, and endless others suffering from security breaches affecting hundreds of millions of people, you need to be concerned about your online activities.
This ebook gives you the easy, convenient, and inexpensive steps you need to take to make your email hackproof.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joseph Sinclair
• Release date: Feb 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781886907041

Joseph Sinclair

University of Michigan BA, JD, US Navy, practiced law in Michigan and Colorado. After a 20-year career in commercial and investment real estate, the author wrote the definitive book on real estate investment analysis, Real Numbers, as his first book. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, however, he got sucked into the vortex of digital technology and had a 12-year career writing technology books for non-programmers. For a decade he returned to investments but now has resumed his activities as an author. His books follow: Real Numbers, Business One Irwin, 1993 Creating Cool Web Databases, IDG Books Worldwide, 1996 Intranet vs. Lotus Notes, AP Professional, 1997 Java Web Magic, Hayden Books, 1997 Developing Web Pages with TV HTML, Charles River Media, 1998 Typography on the Web, AP Professional, 1999 Thin Clients Clearly Explained, Morgan Kaufmann, 2000 eBay the Smart Way, Amacom, 2000-2007, Five Editions Web Pages the Smart Way, Amacom, 2001 Creating Web Based Training, Amacom, 2002 eBay Business the Smart Way, Amacom, 2003-2007, Three Editions eBay Motors the Smart Way, Amacom, 2004 eBay Global the Smart Way, Amacom, 2004 Building eBay Traffic the Smart Way, Amacom, 2005 eBay Photography the Smart Way, Amacom, 2005 eBay Inventory the Smart Way, Amacom, 2006 Publishing by Voice, Appworth Media, 2016 The author has several books in progress to be published in 2018. Hackproof Email, Appworth Media, 2018 In his spare time, the author is a fine arts photographer, typographer, downhill skier, cross-country skier, snowshoer, hiker, backpacker, peak bagger, canyoneer, and fly fisherman mostly in Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Book preview

Hackproof Email

Make Your Email Secure with RMail Services

By Joseph T. Sinclair

The publisher of Hackproof Email is Appworth® Media an imprint of Caithness Multimedia Publishing, Vallejo, California, USA. Distributed by Amazon and Smashwords.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information about the subject matter covered. It is published and sold with the understanding that the publisher and author are not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, marketing, technical, digital, security, or other professional services. If specialized advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of an appropriate and competent professional person should be sought.

Version: 180130

ISBN-10: 1-886907-04-8     

ISBN-13: 978-1-886907-04-1

All design, text, graphics, photos, audio, video, the selection and arrangement thereof, and all software are:

Copyright 2018 Joseph T. Sinclair. All rights reserved.

Created in the United States of America.

Any use of materials on this application, including reproduction, modification, distribution, republication, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written consent of Joseph T. Sinclair is not permitted. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.  This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.  If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.  If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite online retailer and purchase your own copy.  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Front of Book

Cover - Title/Copyright Page - Dedication - Table of Contents - Foreword - Preface - Acknowledgements

Part I  Introduction to Email

Chapter 1  Introduction

Chapter 2  The Email System

Chapter 3  The Email Phone System

Chapter 4  Risks and Defenses in the Email System

Chapter 5  The Secure Email System

Part II  Protect Your Email with RMail Services

Chapter 6  RMail Inbox

Chapter 7  RMail Web

Chapter 8  Why Registered Email Is Better Than US Postal Service Registered Mail

Chapter 9  Message-Level Encryption

Chapter 10  E-sign

Chapter 11  LargeMail File Transfer

Chapter 12  Using Complex Documents

Chapter 13  RMail Extras

Chapter 14  Using Secure Email Services

Part III  What You Should Know About Security

Chapter 15  Business and the Law

Chapter 16  Hackers’ Delight: The Social Side of Cybersecurity

Chapter 17  Subtle Security Breaches

Chapter 18  Security Review

Chapter 19  Developing Safe Practices for Secure Email

Chapter 20  Business Examples

Chapter 21  The Last Word

Back of Book

Glossary

Index

About the Publisher and Author

Other Publications of Appworth®

Part I

Introduction to Email

This part is an analysis of the internet email system that everyone uses. It is intended to give you the background to determine what you need to do to make your email more secure and less susceptible to hacking.

[ 1 ]

Introduction

I probably don’t need to recite a litany of famous cybersecurity breaches, but I will. The media has provided us with plenty of headlines over the last few years. And those are just the ones we know about. It is said there are plenty of other big stories that have never come to light.

A Partial List

A partial list of well-known companies that have had their customer's data breached since the middle of the last decade: TD Ameritrade, National Archive and Records Administration, Citigroup, Healthnet, eBay, Honda, Defense Department, Chase, Scotttrade, Target, At&T, T-Mobile, Yahoo, Democratic National Committee, Wyndham Hotels, Equifax, Department of Veterans Affairs, Sony, Home Depot, IRS, Bank of America, Texas Attorney General, Allied Insurance, JP Morgan, TJ Max, Hyatt Hotel, Kmart, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Facebook, and Adobe.

According to FBI Public Service Announcement, May 4, 2017, in the US between October 2013 and December 2016 there were 40,203 complaints of email security breaches from small and large businesses with total losses of $5,320,890,448. That’s an average loss of $131,902 per complaint. Between January 2015 and December 2016 there was a 2,370% increase in losses reported. Who knows how many breaches went unreported. And the report doesn’t include personal complaints. (The FBI announcement is very useful and includes scenarios, trends, and suggestions for protection.)

The January issue of PC Magazine predicts that email will continue to be a major target for cyber criminals in 2018.

The big question is how does this seemingly endless threat affect you? We all tend to think that that we are of little interest to hackers and in any case our chances of being hacked by cyber criminals from Nigeria, Romania, China, or Russia seem remote. Unfortunately, whatever we may think, we still have bank, brokerage, credit, and shopping accounts online vulnerable to hacking. It’s not a matter of IF. It’s a matter of WHEN. And when it comes, are you ready for it?

If you’re ready for the hack that comes your way, you’ll likely never know it was attempted. If you’re not ready, then shame on you. It’s not likely to end well. But then, there has been plenty of warning.

This book is about getting you ready by making your email secure. Since your email is the cornerstone of your online world, making your email secure goes a long way toward making your entire online presence secure. Indeed, if your email is hijacked or otherwise compromised, it can lead to a serious breach of security in your overall cyber presence, a breach that can result in a substantial financial loss or a critical loss of secrecy (e.g., proprietary information).

It’s true there is no absolute defense to email hacking. Nonetheless, there are simple, convenient, and inexpensive things you can do to change the statistics from being a real threat to being an unlikely occurrence.

There are plenty of solutions to security threats. Many are difficult to understand, complex to implement, or expensive to use. The ones that are more practical tend to be defenses that solve only one security threat, leaving you susceptible to others. That’s why I consider RMail services important. It’s a suite of security services.

RMail services are comprehensive, easy to implement, easy to use, and inexpensive. RMail has been around since 2000 (started out as RPost) and has substantial experience in successfully providing specialized security to email users. Recently it has expanded its security services to be more comprehensive. Hence, this book uses RMail as the prime example of defense against hackers.

Flexible

You can use RMail in place of your current email service, or you can use it as an addition to your current email service to make your email activities more secure. Moreover, it works with whatever email programs and services recipients use.

But anti-hacking security is only part of the RMail story. The huge bonus for businesspeople is that the RMail suite of services is at the same time a suite of convenient and inexpensive business services. Indeed, this book is really a business book. It’s a book about how to conduct business securely in the new digital environment where everyone is connected to everyone else, for better or worse. It’s a book about how to keep things straight (honest) with everyone you deal with whether friends, family, co-workers, colleagues, clients, customers, vendors, collaborators, or the like. After all, almost everyone does some business on the internet.

If you’re an individual with few business responsibilities, there’s plenty here for you to digest too. But if you’re a businessperson, this book is essential for your secure business practices moving forward into a cyber future that’s getting to be more useful yet more hostile every day.

To begin, in order to easily understand the topics in each chapter, you need to understand some of the specific terms the book defines and uses. With that in mind, this introductory chapter sets forth some basic definitions.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)

An internet service provider (ISP) provides you with internet service. This means that your ISP gives you the means of hooking up to the internet. Typical ISPs are AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Cox, and other major communications corporations (telecoms).

There are also plenty of local ISPs. Local ISPs typically do not serve a nationwide market and in many cases do not even serve a statewide market. Some are so small that they serve only part of a city or county.

Profit and non-profit organizations, such as corporations and colleges, also provide internet service internally to their employees and other constituents, but not to the public.

Whatever their size and market, ISPs are the entities that give you a connection to the internet. That connection is via phone line, cable, or satellite transmission.

Host ISP

A host ISP is simply a provider that specializes in Web hosting services. It doesn’t necessarily provide you with a connection to the internet, but it does provide you with a smorgasbord of services for establishing and managing your website(s). Your normal ISP is typically a host ISP too, but most people prefer to use a separate host ISP due to the specialized Web hosting services that a host ISP typically offers. HostGator and 1&1 are good examples.

Email Program

To handle your email, you use email software; that is, you use an email program. Your email program (on your computer) sends, receives, stores, and manages your email. Email programs are such software as Microsoft’s Outlook, Mozilla’s Thunderbird, Apple’s Mail, Synacor’s Zimbra, and the like. Some email service providers provide email programs, too, such as Google (Gmail). For tablets and phones, email programs are known as email apps. (There is also the technical and decades-old term of email client, but this book does not use that term.)

Email Service Provider

An email service provider runs an email server on the internet. When you send an email, it goes to an email server as outlined in Chapter 2. An email service provider operates that email server.

For instance, if your ISP is Comcast but you use Google’s Gmail, Google is your email service provider. When you send an email, it goes to the Google email server.

Many of the email service providers such as Google Gmail, Microsoft Outlook.com (Hotmail), and Yahoo Mail offer free email service. ISP’s also offer email service typically at no additional charge.

Marketing Email Services

There is also a large industry of email service providers that handle mass email marketing campaigns sending hundreds or thousands of marketing email messages at one time. Such email service providers are beyond the scope of this book. Examples are AWeber and Constant Contact.

Email Server

An email server is software that can run on any computer connected to the internet. It sends email messages out across the internet; and it receives email messages from the internet and holds those messages in storage. An email server is a program that runs on the email service provider’s computer, not your computer.

When you send a message from your email program it goes to an email server, which sends it on to its destination. An email server also receives your email messages from the internet and holds the messages in storage until your email program retrieves them.

Can you operate your own email server? Sure. You can take an old laptop (or desktop), install a free email server program on it, hook it up to the internet via your router, and run it 24/7. Anyone can do it. But if it doesn’t run 24/7, it misses incoming email. And it requires management that sometimes requires expertise. Consequently, few people run their own email server. It’s just easier to use an email service provided by an ISP, a host ISP, or an email service provider.

Avoid Confusion

The previous definitions make simple distinctions, but everyday realities often hide such distinctions. For instance, most ISPs also provide email service at no extra cost. That is, as well as hooking you up to the internet, they also provide you with an email server. Hence, you may easily overlook the distinction between your ISP and your email service provider, if they are one and the same.

There are three distinctions to remember:

ISP (internet connection)

Email service provider (email server)

Email program

Each is independent. Each service that you use can be supplied by a different provider, or one provider can supply them all.

So, keep in mind that you don’t have to use the email service that your ISP offers. As long as you have a connection to the internet, you can use any email service that you desire. That’s why many people who have ISPs such as AT&T, Comcast, or other major telecoms may also use Gmail provided by Google for free.

(Note that if you operate a website, your host ISP, also provides email service typically at no extra cost giving you yet another choice for your email service.)

Most ISPs, host ISPs, and email service providers not only provide email service but also provide a free email program. Nonetheless, email service and an email program don’t necessarily go together. You can use an email service yet still use a separate and independent email program. And even if you use Gmail provided by Google, you may opt to use it with an email program such as Outlook rather than with the Google Gmail program.

To gain an understanding of the email system and basic email security, it’s necessary to keep all these distinctions in mind.

Secure Email Service Provider

A secure email service provider is