The More Secure Alternative to the SMTP Mail Protocol and Why You Need It
Although popular among many users to send emails, the SMTP protocol is not secure because it lacks encryption. This means that it leaves your private mail communication and data exposed to eavesdropping and data leaking while your message is in transit. To protect your data and private conversations, it would be helpful to learn about alternative secure SMTP mail protocols.
Transport Layer Security (TLS)
This is an application layer protocol that is popular and mostly used by web clients to secure emails by encrypting them. Although we cannot say it is an alternative, we can safely say that it works on top of SMTP to give you tight email security. It gives rules to secure your SMTP messages using these two layers:
- The TLS handshake layer is responsible for initiating and validating a connection.
- The TLS record layer is responsible for securing application data using the keys created during the handshake layer.
Opportunistic TLSis a protocol configuration that enables an email client to upgrade from a plain text connection that is not secure to an encrypted connection that is secure.
STARTTLSis the email protocol configuration that the email client uses to ask the email server for this upgraded connection. If this command fails, the email will be sent without encryption.
Forced TLSis a protocol configuration that ensures that before an email is sent, there is already an established TLS connection and therefore, messages are encrypted. Without this connection being established, the mail will not be sent to the recipient.
Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions(S/MIME): These are other common secure alternatives to SMTP protocols used to secure emails with end-to-end- encryption. They use signatures known as digital certificates to authenticate and send encrypted emails that cannot be read by anybody except the recipient for which the mail is meant for. These signatures secure your emails while in transit against eavesdroppers. Although S/MIME encrypts your email contents, the metadata contained in your email header remains unencrypted. This still exposes important details about the sender or the receiver.
There are many other secure SMTP mail protocol alternatives that we will not discuss in this article. They all have their security flaws and to ensure that your email security is tight, it is important to use a Virtual Private Network that values your right to online privacy.
Why VPN Unlimited is The Perfect Solution for Your Online Privacy
VPN Unlimited is a technological solution that offers you optimum online security. It has the following features which make it one of the most reliable VPNs for your online privacy needs.
- No-Log Policy: VPN Unlimited keeps no record of your browsing activities. Sites you have visited, your downloads, and metadata are some of the data which VPN does not keep a record of.
- AES-256 encryption: The VPN Unlimited app uses military-level 256-bit encryption to protect your data against online attacks and cybercrimes.
- 500 servers: These are found in over 80 locations, ensuring that your browsing speed is never negatively affected by connecting to VPN Unlimited.
