Future of eMail

[R0n1n]

I`m not so sure with this approach, I like the idea of email being a medium similar to the telephone. Lets not add additional layers of security to it unless they can be transparent to the end users. I do agree that something needs to be done with the spamming issue, although I fear that the media are creating more FUD about this then need be.

For another suggestion how about people actually talk to one another..as in converse with another person via speech, this is fairly secure, and also mostly free from spam (excpet for those annoying people who butt in to your conversation) I seem to get 100s of emails containing one sentance, which to me is as pointless as spam (unless of course Timezone differences are a factor). I see people in the same office sending email to someone two desks away, or chatting via AIM to someone across the desk. Whatever happened to just talking???

And I don`t think a book on internet security for complete retards would sell, or at least it would not be the panacea you think. End users, all the millions of them, want stuff that works, they don`t want to have to know how to install diigital certifcates or pgp, they want to type an email, press send and leave it at that. Creating this enviornment is the task that faces us, leave the behind the scenes work to security folk, but take endusers out of the equation as much as possible. Give them simple stuff that works, and won`t destroy their computer every month (does that mean getting rid of MS Windows?). I just think that all the talk of educating users etc.. which we often dicuss on here is a somewhat wasted effort, sure tell them that mail from someone you know with a file attached called "Hot chicknaked.exe" is probably bad, but thats it.

I may have gone off topic here, so apologies if I have... its just that everyday I see tech folk blurting out to people how they need this or that, and the folks who sign the cheques ask why? and they get some lame answer explaining that it will do xxxxxx and stop yyyyyyy and they really don`t care. The majority of users are not techies, and have no wish to be, they just want to send and email to grandma with a picture of their new dog attached. See this whole thing is what Linux needs to address to gain acceptance...but thats a whole other conversation...

[anjali]

R0n1n... I just read that IM is supposed to be the next hit thing..... r u hinting t something similiar....

I agree the endusers want simple technology to work for them... but that is exactly what we are discussing here... The current email technology has many inherent flaws....... which needs to be addressed inorder to rasie the assurance level of endusers.... Current system allows anyone to send mail to anyone... that is a serious flaw... Some corrective action has to be taken in that direction.... Current technology lets loosely configured SMTP servers to act as open relay servers which could be used for sending spam mails to millions... again this needs to be addresed..... Current technology send unencrypted messages which again needs to be addressed....

All in all the basic Email technology has to undergo some changes.... may be in form of advanced SMTP protocol or whatever other technological advances.... But yeah care could be taken to ensue that technology is fairly simple for enduser to grasp and implement without much fuss....

[ric-o]

Originally posted here by MsMittens
If people would stop buying/investigating what the spammers had to offer we'd actually see a drop in spamming.

Hit ONE of the nails right on the head MSMittens! Supply and demand is definitely one of the core problems with SPAM: if nobody buys, noone will send the emails out. However, this wont be solved...junk mail (snail-mail that is) still exists doesn't it?

So instead of charging for email, as is the case in snail-mail, lets put some authentication in place giving you authorization to send the emails. A mechanism of accountability (re.; abuse complaint department when one of those _authorized_ senders spews tons of junk emails out).

Ah, so many nails to hit with trusty hammer...