Many of our customers use Google Apps in conjunction with LuxSci email and web services.  One relatively new policy of Google Apps has caused and will cause many problems for customers who are forced to use “legacy” web browsers — Google only supports the latest 2 major versions of each browser. It already does not support Internet Explorer v6 and v7 and will soon force Windows users to upgrade to Windows Vista or higher.

What does this mean?

If your web browser is not upgraded and recent, you may not be able to access Google Apps or it may not work properly for you.  Google has been and will continue to design their site so that it works properly only with the latest browsers, disregarding any compatibility issues with older versions.

For example, Internet Explorer is currently at Version 9.  This means that Google and its sites currently support only versions 8 and 9 of Internet Explorer.  If you use version 6 or 7, then you are out of luck unless you upgrade!  Their site may not work properly for you or may break without notice and the only recourse is to upgrade or use another, more recent, web browser.

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LuxSci has finished updating its Web Interface, giving it a much more modern look via use of some technologies present in most modern web browsers, like Google Chrome, FireFox 3.6+, Safari, Opera 10, and Internet Explorer 9.

The web interface:

• Now is now fully compatible with Internet Explorer 9 and Google Chrome for Mac
• Is fastest in Google Chrome, out of all available web browsers
• Looks best in: Google Chrome, FireFox 3.6+, or Safari 5
• Still looks pretty good in Opera 10 and Internet Explorer 9
• Looks fine in other supported browsers (the interface is backwards compatible with older technologies) like Internet Explorer 6-8, Opera 9, FireFox 2+, and older supported versions of Safari.

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There is a wonderful FireFox Add-on call “Prism“.  This allows you to convert most web sites into Desktop Applications.  It works with Mozilla FireFox 3 and up.

What are the advantages?

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If you are allowing Mozilla FireFox or Thunderbird to remember passwords to web sites and/or email accounts in their Password Manager tool, you should know that these passwords are all stored in a plain text file (base64 encoded) on your computer’s disk drive.  This file is accessible to anyone with administrative access to your computer.  If you have any concerns about the possibility of other people accessing your computer and this gaining easy access to copies of the passwords that you are using, you really need to employ the “Master Password” feature of these programs.

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LuxSci has added plug-ins to its WebMail application in version 10.10 of LuxSci’s software which includes two JAVA applets.  So, were we hesitant to add JAVA applets, FLASH, ActiveX, and other plugins in the first place?  And why the sudden change of heart?  What does this mean for our customers who are concerned about security or who do not want or cannot use JAVA applets?

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LuxSci has released a new bulk downloading tool that allows users to save many files at once to their computer with minimal effort.  With LuxSci WebMail, this means that now users can:

• Download all Attachments at Once: Click on the new "Download All Attachments in The Message" link, available in the "Attachments" tab of your message view area, to open a pop-up window containing the bulk download tool.
   
• Download All Selected Messages at Once: Select any number of email messages from the message list and click on the "View > Download Message(s)" menu option.  If you have selected more than one message, the bulk download tool will open in a pop-up window with "EML-encoded" versions of all of the selected messages included therein.

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LuxSci has re-written its web-based document management interface from the ground up to provide users with a fast, modern, featureful experience.  The WebAides Documents’ user interface now matches that of WebMail, Address Books, Calendars, and Tasks. Additionally, some new components have been added to make it very easy to upload and download large numbers of files to the Documents WebAides.

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Updated 12/7/2011 with AES security data for the newest browsers and mobile devices.

SSL and TLS are the workhorses that provide the majority of security in the transmission of data over the Internet today. However, most people do not know that the degree of security and privacy inherent in a “secure” connection of this sort can vary from “almost none” to “really really good … good enough for US government TOP SECRET data”.  The piece which varies and thus provides the variable level of security is the “cipher” or “encryption technique”.  There are a large number of different ciphers — some are very fast and very insecure.  Some are slower and very secure.  Some weak ones (export-grade ciphers) are around from the days when the USA did not permit the export of decent security to other countries.

AES, the Advanced Encryption Standard, is a relatively new encryption technique/cipher that is the successor of DES.  AES was standardized in 2001 after a 5 year review, and is currently one of the most popular algorithms used in symmetric key cryptography (which, for example, is used for the actual data transmission in SSL and TLS).  It is also the “gold standard” encryption technique; many security-conscious organizations actually require that their employees use AES-256 (256-bit AES) for all communications.

This article discusses AES, its role in SSL, which web browsers and email programs support it, how you can make sure that you only use 256-bit AES encryption of all secure communications, and more.

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