Secure e-mail communications through cryptographic techniques—a study

Abstract

E-mail is one of the leading and most reliable modes of communications even after the emergence of many new methods of electronic communication systems. E-mail messages are transmitted from the senders’ system to the recipients’ system over the Internet with the help of some intermediary nodes including servers, switches, and gateways. E-mail communication relies on some of the oldest communication protocols which have not been modified ever enough since. Hence, e-mail communication is vulnerable to some security risks including eavesdropping, spoofing, tampering, and phishing. The e-mail communication system makes use of some security protocols, techniques, and data encryption methods in many ways to make this communication secure and reliable. This paper reviews the security of e-mail protocols and data encryption techniques that are in use in the e-mail system. It reports the results of a study of the roles and advantages of e-mail security techniques, protocols, and algorithms. This paper also highlights security vulnerabilities in an e-mail communication system and the possibility for improvement in the control measures.