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Ciphire Mail
Price: Free

Features
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Andy Shaw

This review updated: 31/03/2005
Featured in magazine:
Issue 106
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: Ciphire Labs
Web Address: www.ciphire.com


Sending an email isn't like sending a letter. You can't seal it in a sealed envelope so that the recipient will know if it has been tampered with, and you can't sign it to prove that it came from you. To address these issues Ciphire Mail is a free download offering secure encryption between users of the software without the pain of collecting public keys and passwords for all your contacts.

Features
Ciphire Mail offers a simple means of encrypting your email – translating it into a virtually uncrackable code that only the intended recipient can read. Like most encryption, this works using a mixture of public keys and private passwords. The main difference between this and more standard forms of email encryption is that this is a breeze to set up and use with email software like Outlook Express or Mozilla Thunderbird – though it doesn't work with web-based email.

Performance
When you send an email, it leaves your computer and disappears off through your ISP's mail server. From here, it bounces around the internet finding its way to your recipient's ISP, much like a letter will pass through more than one sorting office to reach its destination. At any time during this process, it's more than possible for a person with the right know-how to intercept your mail, read it, and send it on its way, leaving no-one any the wiser that it has been tampered with. If that email has been encrypted, it's a lot less likely that people will be able to read it.

Ease of use
Ciphire works out whether the person you're sending the mail to has the software installed and, if so, encrypts the email accordingly. This means you can send your email as normal and, if the other person is a registered Ciphire user, the message will be encrypted. So the only downside is that you'll need to persuade the people to whom you want to send private messages to download the same software as you.

Value for money
Although accepting that a commercial version will have to follow this free release in order to pay for its development, Ciphire has suggested that it will only charge companies and government organisations. This is good news for consumers as it means that, should you grow attached to the software now, you still won't have to pay for it in the future.

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