Security of Information in Email Attachments (Seam

[baumgrenze]

I hope this is not a hopelessly naive question.

How secure is information sent via an email attachment if it is a jpg image and/or an Acrobat file?

I realize that there exists code to scan email transmissions for important numbers like social security numbers and credit card numbers. Are there malicious individuals with nothing better to do than to scan attached images and/or acrobat files being transmitted for similar information?

Thanks,

[Leif]

I think this is more a security question than an email or browser issue, so I will move this post to the Safe Computing forum

Hopefully you'll get a useful response there!

[JoeP517]

There are such people. But largely now what they do is done automatically via programs. Certainly something in a non-text format is safer from the novice or 'script kiddies'. How safe is a matter of conjecture and your own paranoia. You can always look at <img src=/S/free.gif border=0 alt=free width=30 height=15> encryption software such as The International PGP Home Page. Also, see the links at encryption software - Google Search for free and commercial software.

Joe

[jscher2000]

If you've ever noticed the way Google deconstructs PDF files for its cache then you have a sense of how secure a standard PDF file is from scanners (not very). If you want an attachment to be secure, it is best to apply a password. This feature is available in some PDF software and also in various ZIP/archiving programs.