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Secure Your E-Mail With Interosa

Java-based technology lets senders specify when e-mail message expires, prevents printing or sharing.

By Stan Miastkowski, PCWorld   

Using Interosa, you can set messages to expire within a set period of time, or prevent recipients from printing, forwarding, or cutting and pasting messages.

QVtech won't forecast availability or pricing for Interosa. The initial release of the product will be for large e-mail service providers, noted a company spokesperson. A version for Microsoft Exchange Server and other platforms is expected to be available later.

Under Interosa, messages are sent as encrypted e-mail attachments (using the well-respected Blowfish encryption algorithm). The attachments include their own custom Java-based viewer, so a recipient with any standard e-mail client (Microsoft Outlook Express, Eudora, and others) can open the message with a correct password. But beyond passwords, the sender can also specify that only a recipient with a specific e-mail address can open the attachment, and then only within a specified period of time.

If the sender of the e-mail chooses, they can prevent the recipient from doing anything other than viewing the message in the Interosa Window. They can also permit or prevent forwarding, cutting and pasting, or any combination of these activities.

The message is always stored in an encrypted form, according to QVtech representatives. When an Interosa-protected message "expires" (if the sender chooses this option), the recipient can no longer decrypt it, even with a password.

Interosa can similarly protect documents sent as additional attachments, but they must be stored in HTML format. Microsoft Office 2000 and other options allow this.

Other Interosa features allow senders to limit messages to delivery to specified network domains. This allows messages to remain only within a specific network, or allows only recipients at certain locations to open the messages.

With e-mail now being the leading conduit for computer viruses, Interosa also provides a measure of security against accidentally distributing viruses with documents, QVtech representatives say. By requiring all e-mailed documents be stored in HTML format, the software effectively neutralizes viruses, including common macro viruses.