Letters take at least a day. There are alternatives - facsimile and voice mail. However, sending documents over the facsimile machine requires almost as much effort as sending them through the mailbox. So, for many exchanges e-mail offers lawyers and clients a better way to communicate. While there is some truth to this perception, much of it is based on hype.
Computer criminals exist, and they can cause and have caused a lot of trouble.
However, traditional theft and corporate embezzlement are much bigger problems. There are far easier ways to get access to confidential information than by using sophisticated computer and telephone equipment. For example, credit card numbers, which can be encrypted and sent over the Internet, are also available in the trash cans behind just about any restaurant. In reality, an assessment of how secure the Internet is depends on the way it is used. To discuss what security risks exist requires an understanding of how a particular type of message is transmitted over the Internet.