An application that is downloaded from the Web each time it is run. The advantage is that the application can be run from any computer, and the software is routinely upgraded and maintained by the hosting organization rather than each individual user. When Toronto lawyer Ron Jourard sends an e-mail to a client, he doesn't have to worry about it getting into the wrong hands. Mr. Jourard uses free on-line encryption software to ensure all of his communications in cyberspace are as secure as military secrets.
Confidentiality is crucial to the practise of law.
Until he discovered the secure e-mail programs HushMail and ZixMail, he used to advise his clients not to use the Internet to communicate confidential information. E-mail messages are passed from one computer server to another as they travel through cyberspace, leaving backup copies on numerous disk drives and tapes. If they are not encrypted, anyone can read them. There is also a danger of personal information being scooped up by software set up by government agencies or private companies to scan cyberspace for tidbits of data, Mr. Minhas warns. Mr. Jourard says that many of his clients want to communicate with him by e-mail because it is quick and convenient, but anything they say could be embarrassing to them personally or damaging to their case if the wrong person read it.