Email Is Dangerous

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Email Is Dangerous
Introduction
The writer of the paper is trying to say that email has become very unsafe and dangerous for communication due to its privacy issues. The claim is according to the report by Efail, a security exploits, stating that encrypted (secure and private) email was not only hard to create but might also be practically unrealistic due to what the core of the email is (Norton np).
Summary
According to the author, email began as a small network in which grad schools flirted with the US military, had no privacy measures or structures for email authentication, and email privacy model relied on individual courtesy, not to read other person’s email. However, ideas for crucial unrestricted cryptography were introduced enabling people to communicate through privacy that is mathematically verifiable and was mainly used by government institutions. In 1991 Zimmerman entered the PGP cryptography and later new forms of encrypted communication were discovered including the MIME and S/MIME created by Ned Freed and Nathaniel Borenstein (Norton np). The technology allowed individuals to add attachments to emails and instruct the computer on how to handle them. Eventually, the discovery of the web together with MIME code and standards turned the email into a full-grown internet browser.
Argument of the Article
The dangers of using the email, as indicated by Efail, are based on the fact that email client considers it is an internet browser.

An attacker can steal the details of one’s secret mail using this technology. Email client operating on OpenPGP or S/MIME when decrypting one’s mail also fetches things from the internet. The client may also decode a web image having the content of the received email thus sending the email that is easily readable to the entire web without him/her ever realizing that it happened (Norton np). For instance, most hacks began as forged emails which told things that were not true, acted like web browsers, and the hacks could obtain one’s login and access passwords.
The writer maintains that email is very harmful even though most people do not care about their content being decrypted remotely since hackers only target CEOs. Also, the writer cites poor foundation as the source of email insecurity while comparing email to other networks such as WhatsApp, Wickr, and Wire which use the same interface as the email but with an advanced modern encryption scheme. They are, thus, authenticated from the beginning and secure (Norton np).
Opinions
Matt Blaze’s claims that HTML mail was the root of the email security problems since the architecture interacted with security structures unpleasantly. Furthermore, experts such as Blaze and Green maintain that the email is unfit for communication of valuable information since it is prone to credential-stealing, fake phishing emails, spam, and several other hacks and scams (Norton np).
Conclusion
Even though there has been an advancement in the email architecture since the 1990s, the email remains dangerous. Just like Efail exposes, the email’s ability to act as a web browser has made it vulnerable to hacking. Therefore, using the mail has become dangerous to the mail users.
Work Cited
Norton, Quinn. “Email Is Dangerous.” The Atlantic, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/email-is-dangerous/560780/. Accessed 7 June 2018.