Difference between revisions of "OPS335 Lab 4d"
(Created page with '= Encrypting Email Connections = This is the same diagram of the setup we've been working on for the last two weeks: Image:Email-servers.png Note the two globes in the dia…') |
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# Email (the way the vast majority of people use it) travels from SMTP server to SMTP server uncencrypted. That means that nothing sent over email is ever truly secure. But intercepting SMTP server to SMTP server traffic is difficult and expensive, not worth doing for the little bit of money most of us have in our bank account. | # Email (the way the vast majority of people use it) travels from SMTP server to SMTP server uncencrypted. That means that nothing sent over email is ever truly secure. But intercepting SMTP server to SMTP server traffic is difficult and expensive, not worth doing for the little bit of money most of us have in our bank account. | ||
# Email travelling over a LAN (especially Wifi, but any local network) is always encrypted. If it weren't - that is so easy and cheap to intercept that you're just asking for someone to please take your passwords and steal your identity. These days unencrypted connections from your client to your SMTP/IMAP/POP3 server are practically unheard of. | # Email travelling over a LAN (especially Wifi, but any local network) is always encrypted. If it weren't - that is so easy and cheap to intercept that you're just asking for someone to please take your passwords and steal your identity. These days unencrypted connections from your client to your SMTP/IMAP/POP3 server are practically unheard of. | ||
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| + | You see in our diagram that one of the SMTP connections is supposed to be encrypted (this is the one that would be "LAN" traffic) and the IMAP connection as well (this one is either LAN-like traffic or is connecting to localhost, which is a different scenario altogether). | ||
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| + | We're going to secure the two connections that we left to be in plain text previously. Unfortunately encrypting things is rarely a straighforward process. Fortunately we have a whole week to spend on it. | ||
Revision as of 01:51, 5 March 2016
Encrypting Email Connections
This is the same diagram of the setup we've been working on for the last two weeks:
Note the two globes in the diagram - those are two networks your emails need to traverse. Usually both are the internet, but the smaller one (the one your workstation is connected to) cannot be trusted at all. The bigger one usually involves inter-ISP traffic, often through an internet trunk line, so it's equally unencrypted but not as easily accessed by evildoers.
There are two important general truths you need to understand about email encryption:
- Email (the way the vast majority of people use it) travels from SMTP server to SMTP server uncencrypted. That means that nothing sent over email is ever truly secure. But intercepting SMTP server to SMTP server traffic is difficult and expensive, not worth doing for the little bit of money most of us have in our bank account.
- Email travelling over a LAN (especially Wifi, but any local network) is always encrypted. If it weren't - that is so easy and cheap to intercept that you're just asking for someone to please take your passwords and steal your identity. These days unencrypted connections from your client to your SMTP/IMAP/POP3 server are practically unheard of.
You see in our diagram that one of the SMTP connections is supposed to be encrypted (this is the one that would be "LAN" traffic) and the IMAP connection as well (this one is either LAN-like traffic or is connecting to localhost, which is a different scenario altogether).
We're going to secure the two connections that we left to be in plain text previously. Unfortunately encrypting things is rarely a straighforward process. Fortunately we have a whole week to spend on it.
