Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) is an essential tool for ensuring secure communication over the internet. PEM is a security protocol developed in the 1990s by engineers at Bellcore, now Telcordia Technologies, to provide encryption and authentication services for email messages. It was designed as an alternative to S/MIME, which RSA Security Inc had created.
The primary purpose of PEM is to ensure that emails sent across networks are kept private and safe from potential hackers or malicious actors trying to access sensitive information. For this goal of privacy protection to be achieved, specific techniques must be employed, such as digital signatures, encryption algorithms like Triple DES or AES-256 bit keys, message authentication codes (MAC), certificates, and critical public infrastructure (PKI).
Digital signatures are used so that each user can authenticate their identity when sending emails through a network to prove they’re who they say they are before any data exchange takes place between two parties; this also helps protect against man-in-the-middle attacks where someone could intercept communications between users without either party being aware of it happening until after it’s too late! Encryption algorithms like Triple DES or AES 256 offer additional layers of protection since these methods scramble up all incoming data into unintelligible ciphertext, which can only then be decrypted using specific keys known only by those involved with the transaction – making sure no one else has access even if intercepted somehow along its journey over networks! Message Authentication Codes help verify integrity while PKI provides further assurance that every participant involved with transactions has valid credentials necessary before allowing anything confidential through securely; certificates issued via X509 standard protocols act as proof-of identities here too!
All these measures combined make Privacy Enhanced Mail highly reliable when exchanging sensitive information online – whether you’re sending emails containing financial details about clients’ accounts or communicating confidential company documents amongst colleagues on different continents – rest assured knowing your conversations will remain private thanks due diligence provided via PEM technology today!