Secure Email Messages with TLS

Bulletin – Thursday, July 26, 2012

Do your mail servers use TLS?

TLS stands for Transport Layer Security - but that’s not the important thing to remember. Just remember that TLS will encrypt and secure your email with no hassles.

Have you ever heard of making sure the address of the website reads “https, and not “http?” The important part of that is the “S.” Years ago when making online purchases was a new idea, I used to hear people saying to one another, “Make sure it says h-t-t-p-s.” The lock at the bottom of your web browser, and the “S” in the address bar means the connection to that website is encrypted and secure.

We put our social security numbers, our credit card information, our phone numbers, addresses, etc. almost daily into different websites, and we trust our information is secure, but what about our email communication?

It is our responsibility to make sure our customers, and our, personal information is secure. In much the same way HTTPS secures your web activity, TLS secures your email communication, and the best part is, after the initial configuration, it all happens behind the scenes. With TLS there are no confusing and convoluted “secure” emails you have to click on, create online accounts for, jump through hoops, and leap tall buildings, just to get to read your email. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, and you’ve never come across one of these emails, consider yourself lucky. For anyone else who knows what I’m talking about, offering TLS for inbound and outbound email is exactly what you are looking for.

TLS happens at the server level, not the human level. A mail server that can send and receive using TLS can exchange encrypted emails with other TLS mail servers in the background, completely transparent, requiring no user intervention. TLS lets the mail server worry about security, and it lets you worry about writing that next big account!

Bottom line is Tuscano email servers are TLS enabled so when your servers are similarly enabled. rest assured our communications are secure. Your Internet Service Provider should be able to assist with enabling this service.

For more information on TLS and email security, please check out this excellant article from the IIABA.

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