When you put a letter in an envelope, close it and put it in a mailbox, you assume that the postal service will deliver the letter without opening and reading it. The content of letters in transport is protected in many countries around the world. And we all think this is how it should be. However, people start to send less and less letters and have moved to sending e-mails. In some countries, e-mail communication is even regarded as legal binding communication. So why do we not have similar rules for e-mail?

That e-mail is scanned by e-mail scanners for embedded malware, or for material declared unwanted by the recipient, of course is accepted practice and safeguards you against problems. But other scanners will scan and analyze the content and store the information. That information can then for instance be used to send you specific information or advertisements that possibly meet your “analyzed” interest. And a similar action can be done with chat programs or messages send through social networks.

The EU Parliament wants the EU Commission to come with proposals to end the unwanted and unsolicited reading of electronic information. That is a good start (better than nothing), but of course it still take years before this may be established and becoming an official EU Law. And then it will only be applicable to electronic communications in member countries of the EU. There are many more countries around the world where your electronic communications may pass and be scanned.

A law like this has to be crafted taking the scanning for legitimate purposes (malware, spam, unwanted content) into consideration. As the mail in both instances is scanned by machines and not humans, this distinction has to be made. Otherwise the law will be counter-productive, prohibiting even gateway solutions for protecting your infrastructure to scan or block incoming electronic communication.

Of course you can do something yourself here as well. Normally the bulk of the e-mail you send is to people you know. And there are plenty of open source of free encryption programs, even as plug-ins to most e-mail clients. And when your e-mails are encrypted, all they scanners can do is store how many e-mails you send and where.

Full story: Norman’s security blog

• NAO wants status of risky government projects to be public
  The National Audit Office (NAO) has called for the status of high-risk projects in government, including major IT contracts, to be reported publicly to reduce the risk of project failure. View full...
• ‘Terrorizing’ Twitter & Facebook
  You've probably heard by now that the US Department of Homeland Security is working on an overhaul of its terrorist alert system, which would involve, among other things, alerting people through Twitt...
• Hundreds of College and Government websites still redirecting to fake stores
  In January, I talked about high-profile websites, which had been hacked to redirect users to fake online stores. One unique aspect of the hack was the fact that the attackers had set up additional web...
• How Much Can Today’s Communication Media Be Trusted?
  Today’s social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook can be convenient tools for users to easily get the information they want. Such sites can easily satisfy users’ desire to know more, espec...
• UK Government counts the Cost of Cybercrime
  The British government has released a report on the annual cost of cybercrime to the United Kingdom. The study mechanism seems greatly flawed, in that it relies almost exclusively on published report...
• Popular Polish government Web site Opole.pl injected with Pharmaceutical links
  Web sites don't necessarily have to be injected with malicious code (the kind of code that ends up delivering exploits to the user’s browser). In fact we see a LOT of Web sites that are inje...
• Microsoft says ‘Good riddance’ to USB Autorun
  Here's some good news for anyone who has been struck by auto-running malware from a USB stick in the past. Microsoft has rolled-out an "important, non-security update" through Windows Update, changing...
• “The Road to Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions”, Part II
  It's been a while since the previous post discussed commercial "intelligence gathering tool".It would have seemed ridiculous, if this time it wasn't UK government who thinks it's acceptable to hack in...
• Chinese phishing sites: stocks and government lottery
  I find Chinese phishing sites particularly interesting. For starters, they don't seem to attract too many security researchers. I have found that very few Chinese sites are blocked by Phishtank or Goo...
• Sir Paul Speaks the Truth: Cyber Law Enforcement is a Good Investment
  In this morning's BBC News, Metropolitan Police chief Sir Paul Stephenson is the focus of their story, Met police chief warns on internet crime. We would do well in the United States to listen to the...