Securing Internet Electronic Mail

Thanks to the widespread success of the Internet, the use of e-mail has become common practice. More and more people are even using it as a primary means of communication. Unfortunately, regular users are not aware of the risks they are facing. If you send a regular letter, you can rely on the confidentiality of its content but not so with plain e-mail. Each message can be intercepted by a trained computer user connected to the net. Indeed in this paper we will show how easy it is to read other people's e-mail, and even change it without being caught. Thanks to an extensive use of cryptography, we can limit these risks. We will present and analyze an overview of the latest available standards and tools.