|
That is the warning from a corporate virus protection company in the wake of a call by European MEPs for greater use of e-mail encryption.
The MEPs made the suggestion to help prevent "spying" on business e-mails by the Echelon system which was used by military intelligence to gather information during the Cold War. The politicians claim to be worried that the system is now being used to snoop on European companies and home users.
Not only do the MEPs say this is in contravention of the Human Rights Convention but are advising users to encrypt their e-mails in order to avoid their private correspondence being read.
However, Sophos, the UK corporate virus protection company, has now warned companies to be careful about taking up this advice.
Although encryption helps to ensure the privacy of e-mail, it says it also has ramifications for virus scanning at the Internet and gateway level.
Because encrypted e-mails can only be scanned securely at the desktop, any organisation relying on Internet or gateway protection is compromising its security by sending and receiving encrypted documents, it claims.
"It's obviously encouraging to see European MPs taking privacy seriously and we are in favour of more companies using encryption to secure their data," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos Anti-Virus.
He added, "However, companies should think very carefully about deploying encryption because of the impact it may have on their virus protection."
Desktop anti-virus protection, said Cluley, remains the best way to protect computers and will continue to "protect people even in an encrypted world. Anti-virus companies which only offer gateway and Internet scanning will find detecting viruses inside encrypted mail as easy as nailing jelly to the ceiling."
|
