Certivox has launched a cloud service that the seller claims solves the decades-long problem of securing email and attachments, so only the recipients can read them.
The new service, called PrivateSky, handles all encryption and decryption on the browser, so data isn’t unsecured when it really is traveling or stored on the web, in keeping with Certivox. PrivateSky was made generally available Thursday.
Even though email was invented roughly 40 years ago, security remains a headache for many companies. In a survey released last year, secure messaging provider VaporSteam found]that three-quarters of the respondents from large companies said they’ve got violated compliance rules via email . A couple of third of them said they did so intentionally.
Certivox is attacking the matter by making the method of securing messages and documents in PrivateSky as easy as sending an email. “Effectively, this is a browser-based portal that pushes the envelope on HTML 5 technologies to do end-to-end encrypted messaging and managed file transfers, in order that the knowledge is truly encrypted using the browser’s native engines,” said Brian Spector, chief executive of the corporate.
HTML 5, the newest version of the markup language for creating websites, is a way more sophisticated language than its predecessor, HTML 4. The hot technology comes with an entire database for storing gigabytes of data and removes the necessity for many add-ons, comparable to JavaScript and Flash, that are huge security risks because of a good number of vulnerabilities.
PrivateSky only works on HTML 5-supported versions of Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browsers. To send an email and attachment, a registered user logs into the portal, writes the message, uploads the attachment and presses encrypt and send. PrivateSky scrambles all data through technology embedded within the page before the info leaves the browser to Certivox’s servers.
The receiving addresses are sent a message with a link that the recipient clicks to go into PrivateSky and enter his name and email address. The portal then sends a message with another link that the recipient clicks directly to return to the portal and setup a four-digit PIN. Once it really is done, PrivateSky stores a token inside the HTML 5 database within the browser, so the subsequent time the individual visits the portal to retrieve messages, he’ll need the PIN that fits the token.
“It really just acts like a closed-loop web-mail system,” Spector said.
Certivox offers a free version of the service for sending messages. The premium version costs $9.95 a month and allows users to send files as much as 10MB and is derived with 5GB of storage.
Certivox is simply not alone in selling cloud-based file sharing. Others include YouSendit and Box. Certivox is hoping to distinguish itself with its end-to-end encryption, which it’s pitching to government agencies and the finance and health care industries.
Read more about cloud security in CSOonline’s Cloud Security section.
