As mail security worries grow, coding programs become user-friendly
Forget Federal Express and DHL; more and more, electronic mail is the choice of both home and office users to send confidential and sensitive information fast and safely.
There are writers sending manuscripts or articles, lawyers sending official documents to clients, business travellers communicating with their co-workers or families - even activists spreading their political messages. All have a need to keep their e-mail safe from prying eyes. That is where encryption software comes in.
These programs scramble data into a code that can be read only by the intended recipients. Unscrambling the code requires a digital 'key', really an alpha-numeric string.
The length of the key is measured by the number of bits, with each bit representing one character.
The more bits a key is, the more difficult it will be for a hacker to decipher (or, as is more likely, for his computer program to decipher), and hence the more protected your message is.
How much you you need encryption boils down to how much you trust your electronic postman, systems consultant Bernard Guillot of INCore Technology says.