How To Copy Protect Email


Copy Protecting Email and Web Messages

Messages sent and received using most mail clients like Outlook and Eudora were never designed to be secure. They have been designed for easy access by all sorts of readers and include special tracking codes that tie senders, recipients and their routes together. These tracking codes are utilized by services to trace messages between targets, and also enable authorities to identify messages for closer scrutiny.

In this day and age, national security services realize the need to screen messages for terrorist tip-offs. They may also be looking for illegal activity and screening all mail for related vernacular. While such espionage has always been going on, recently many countries have been passing legislature approving the use of "net snooping" to cover themselves.

Not only does one have to worry about "big brother" but they also need to be aware that industrial espionage has never been easier since everyone has been using the Internet for communication. Messages sent between email client and server may be encrypted but they are not secure because the key for decryption travels with the message. And then on each end of a chain is a copy of the message that even when deleted still remains as evidence on the hard drives.

What are the alternatives?

  • Using the SafeGuard Webmail solution provides DRM controls and copy protection for your messages. No website is required.
  • Using the ArtistScope Site Protection System (ASPS) with WebMail prevents unauthorized access to your messages and copy protects them while on display. A dedicated server or VPS is required to install ASPS.

How is ASPS with WebMail more secure?

WebMail provides online reading of your mail from a web site similar to the Gmail service. As a web service it can be displayed in a site protected by ASPS which prevents all copy, scraping, data mining, etc. ArtistScope used to provide a solution known as "CopySafe Mail" that was based on the CopySafe Web solution, but since we released the ArtistScope Site Protection System (ASPS) CopySafe Mail became unnecessary because ASPS can be applied to any version of WebMail and run on any type of web server including Windows and Linux.

By using a WebMail solution with ASPS your messages and inline media can be only be viewed while they are active, and only while using the ArtisBrowser. At the end of a session and/or after deletion, messages cannot be retrieved from either the server or your computer and there is no evidence trail, not even in cache.

In fact if both sender and recipient are using the same WebMail service messages cannot be intercepted by others even by packet-sniffing because the data sent between the server and the ArtisBrowser is encrypted. Forums and message boards can be similarly copy protected.

Which WebMail and CMS can be used with ASPS?


Any web solution at all can be used. However the easiest to integrate are those that use templates for header, footer, etc because the code to add for all pages can be simply added to those inserts to serve all pages. For the popular CMS like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and Moodle, ArtistScope provides free add-ons that can be installed as plugins for the CMS that greatly simplify the task (no skill necessary).

What modifications are required to use ASPS?


To add ASPS copy protection to your web pages, once the ASPS filter is installed on the server, you only need to add some meta-tags to the pages that need to be protected. Then those meta-tags define the protection settings to be applied and lets the server know that such pages are to be encrypted and visible only to ArtisBrowser users. Other web browsers and clients cannot view ASPS pages at all.

The meta-tags for ASPS can be added to page headers manually or dynamically by using one the CMS plugins for Drupal, Joomla, Moodle or WordPress. With these CMS plugins the site administrator can nominate which pages to protect, leaving some for normal access and doorway pages. In fact ASPS can be used in normal web sites and only copy protect the sections that you nominate in your plugin settings page.

How are messages secure from person to person?


The ArtisBrowser was purposely designed for privacy and copy protection. As such it is capable of identifying the user's computer in a way that no other web browser can. Consequently each user can be identified by their unique computer signature and that Computer ID can be used to identify the user beyond username and password requirements. ASPS user identification cannot be exploited in any way, ensuring that only the intended recipient can access and read the message.

Can messages be copied and shared?

No. Not if the site administrator chooses to invoke the copy protection options of ASPS. Copy protection and the ability to print a message can be defined by the ASPS meta-tags and managed in the ASPS plugin's settings page. When copy protection is enabled, the user cannot PrintScreen, screen capture or save the message content (including media) in any way.

How can one cope with such a complex solution?

Copy protection can be beyond the scope of most web developers but the integration of ASPS has been very much simplified. By using a CMS plugin that installs just like any other plugin, site owners can add and configure ASPS copy protection for any page that they nominate by simply nominating a keyword that can be found in the page's hyperlink. Then the meta-tags to be applied can be injected dynamically.

How does this solution compare with other solutions?

There is no other web site protection solution that can be compared to ASPS for its copy protection, access control or data security.

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