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INDIVIDUALS

Aren't There Existing Secure Email Solutions?

Yes there are, and with care and attention it is possible to configure popular email clients to use digital certificates to send and receive encrypted and signed email.

The problem is that it is very easy to slip up and find that your messages are being sent insecurely after all. Also, mixing secure and regular communications makes it very easy to make mistakes and send sensitive data as regular email unintentionally..

Immutify uses standard protocols and formats, but by providing a separate and distinct secure messaging environment, we make it easy to ensure that sensitive material is always handled securely.

There is a natural tension between security and ease of use, which means that secure systems need to be designed from the ground up with security in mind. Trying to secure general purpose email clients is possible but difficult, and there are many traps for the unwary.

So it's Open Source, Big Deal, So What?

All you pay for is a digital certificate, and access to the secure delivery service, the client software is free to download and install. No security codes, no activation, and no hassle. We mean "free as in beer".

Computer security is a difficult area, in order to make a system secure the defenders need to "get it right" all of the time, whereas an intruder only needs to be right once, and any security system is only as strong as it's weakest link.

By making the ISM client open source we demonstrate our confidence in our product, and our commitment to providing a genuinely secure messaging environment. In the event that we do make any mistakes, and introduce a vulnerability into the product, the eyes of developers across the open source community will help to find that defect so that it can be corrected as quickly as possible.

Immutify for Individuals

Immutify Secure Messaging provides a safe and secure alternative to conventional email. All ISM messages are encrypted from end to end and signed so you can be sure that messages really come from the people they claim to be.

Spam is a massive problem in the Internet age, partly because it is so easy for people to masquerade as someone else when sending messages, and partly because sending messages is totally free. Spammers often send millions of messages, and don't care how few of them generate any result.

The annual subscription for a personal ISM account includes a credit for message charges which is sufficient to cover normal usage for the entire year. Each message costs just 2 pence to send, but this is enough to make large scale spamming uneconomic.

User preferences allow you to specify who you are prepared to receive messages from, the minimum level of user identity verification for a personal ISM account is to verify the name of an account against the name on a credit card which is used to pay the annual subscription charge. You can elect to receive messages only from senders who provide their verified name (and even a physical address if you so choose), and this will be the name matching a credit card account, at a minimum.

While it is certainly possible to obtain access to a credit card account in a false name it is a much more serious undertaking than getting a conventional email account under a false identity. For most purposes this is a more than adequate check to ensure that every message you see really came from the person named on the envelope. For more demanding requirements, higher levels of identity verification are also available.

Messages From Outside the ISM Community

But what about people who do not have an ISM account, how can they ever send messages to me?

ISM provides a web based interface to allow anyone to send you a message. If you decide to switch entirely from conventional email to ISM then you can set up an automated response from your old email account giving people a URL where they can go to send you a message. In theory, spammers could use this to send you junk mail, but in reality they need an automated way of sending these messages in bulk, and it is unlikely that they ever would.

You can also set up personal email addresses for people you know who do not have ISM to use to send you regular email. These special addresses are meaningless strings of letters and numbers, and are all unique. The ISM system will remember who each address is for, when you send a message to someone and will automatically replace your address with their personal address for you so they can just reply to you as usual.

When messages are received addressed to one of these personal mailboxes, ISM checks to see that the message is from the person you gave that address to. If the message is from someone else it is discarded. Even if spammers get hold of these addresses they are of no use unless they can also guess who the one valid sender is which must be used with that address. A compromised address can easily be changed, and if you give an address to a website operator and you suddenly start receiving a lot of junk mail, you will know exactly who is responsible.

It all sounds complicated, but it's remarkably easy to use, ask for a demonstration!

Statements and Financial Reports

Immutify Secure Messaging is designed to allow banks and financial institutions to send you statements and reports in a secure and reliable way.

Fed up with having to log into your credit card company's web site to get your monthly statement? With Immutify Secure Messaging your statements can be delivered directly into your mailbox.

Can't keep track of your bills over time? Statements and bills can be sent in XML format and the integrated database in the ISM client can accumulate your statement data over time. You can track the cost of your utility services, or the value of your investments from month to month and year to year.

Ask your service providers to contact us and see how easy it would be for them to provide these value added services, and reduce costs at the same time.

 

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