Frequently we are approached by customers who have automated systems that need to send out secured emails on demand and without any manual interaction.  These could be web site response systems for sensitive information, health care labs emailing results which need to meet HIPAA compliance, or other situations where the email messages must all be secured.

LuxSci’s SecureLine service provides a means for encrypting some or all outbound email messages using any combination of 4 different email encryption techologies: SMTP TLS, PGP, S/MIME, and SecureLine Escrow (secure message pickup).

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Many of our customers require that electronic digital signatures be added to outbound email messages.  Here we discuss what these are, what they do for you, and how to add them using LuxSci SecureLine email encryption.

What are Digital Signatures?

In short, adding a digital signature to an email message allows:

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Customers often ask how they can know if a message has been read by a specific recipient.  Typically, this is done by requesting a “Read Receipt” when sending the message; however, read receipts are not reliable.  Spammers use techniques such as HTML “web bug” tracking to see if you have read an email message and thus if your email address is valid and ripe for more spamming; this is also not reliable. LuxSci’s SecureLine Escrow service includes a 100% reliable Read Receipt function that can be used when it is essential to know if someone has read a message. It also allows for message retraction (removing further access to an email message).

This article goes over these various methods of determining if a message has been read, shows how each works, and discusses the pros and cons of each.

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LuxSci’s SecureLine end-to-end email security system enables allows customers to enable use of TLS for email delivery, without any further encryption, when TLS is supported by the recipient email servers and the customers’ needs only include transport encryption (i.e. for HIPAA).  This provides security with maximum usability, when available.

However, TLS is not as secure as SecureLine Escrow for email communications.  For cases where enhanced security is desired, even to a recipient whose email servers support TLS, LuxSci’s WebMail email composer now permits users to override the use of “TLS Only” so that “SecureLine Escrow” can be used instead — on a message-by-message basis.  I.e., users can now use Escrow “on demand” to provide enhanced security over TLS.

Additionally, users have a new preference (under “Email Composition > SecureLine” preferences), where they can alter the behavior of WebMail so that “TLS Only” delivery is NOT used for them unless requested — Escrow can be used by default if desired.

These new security settings only apply to SecureLine customers who have “TLS” enabled as a viable secure email delivery method in their account.

This latest tutorial video shows what SecureLine Escrow looks like to a recipient of an encrypted email message. It also demonstrates how SecureSend can be used by anyone with an email address to send a LuxSci SecureLine user a secure email message at anytime and for free.

Watch Video: SecureLine Escrow and SecureSend from an End User’s Perspective

LuxSci has just added a new feature for accounts using SecureLine end-to-end email encryption.  The “SecureLine Escrow Audit Report” provides a downloadable list of all secure messages sent via SecureLine Escrow by all users in the account and includes:

• Sender
• Recipient
• Subject
• Message Size
• Date and Time Sent
• Date and Time the message expires from Escrow
• Date and Time the message was last viewed by the recipient
• IP address of the recipient when the message was last viewed

This report provides account administrators a quick way to globally audit what has been sent and to see what messages have been opened by recipients.  It is available in the administrative “Reports” area.

SecureLine Escrow is the facet of LuxSci’s SecureLine service that allows users to send encrypted email messages to anyone with an email address.  With Escrow, the message is encrypted and stored in a secure database.  A notification message is sent to the recipient that informs them of a message waiting, along with the subject of the message and sender. The notification also provides a link to use to retrieve the secure message.

See “Send a Secure Email to Anyone” for more about how Escrow works.

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LuxSci offers many options for email security. Whether it is PGP, S/MIME, LuxSci’s SecureLine end-to-end email encryption, or forced secure logins over SSL, LuxSci can guide you in making the best choices for secure and safe email.

End-to-end email encryption is one way to ensure that your email can only be read by the intended recipients. SSL and TLS connections are secure, but only to a point. While you can ensure that your users connect securely to LuxSci’s servers, who is to say that your recipient’s connection is secure? With LuxSci SecureLine, even if the recipient’s connection isn’t secure, you can be assured that your message is sent securely and can only be read by whom you intended.

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To address the request of many clients, LuxSci has simplified the process of picking up SecureLine Escrow encrypted email messages.  This change makes message pickup faster and easier and improves the usability of the SecureLine service overall.

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Read receipt requests are generally an extremely unreliable way to find out if your recipient has read an email messages that you have sent to him/her.

Why? Because

• Some email programs do not support read receipts, and thus messages viewed with these would never send you a notice that the message was read.
• Programs that do support read receipts allow the user to respond to them “always”, “never”, or “ask each time” … with “asking each time” being the default.  As a result, users often will decline your request for a receipt that you have read the message.

However, when messages are sent via LuxSci’s SecureLine Escrow encryption service, read receipts are guaranteed to work.

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