Stopping Email Security EFail Attacks using WebAssembly for Swiss Post's IncaMail

What is it about?

Emails can sometimes be intercepted and read by others due to certain weaknesses in how they are encrypted. One of the ways hackers exploit this vulnerability is through what's known as "EFail attacks". Swiss Post offers a solution to this with their service called IncaMail. IncaMail is a secure email service designed to send confidential electronic documents in a way that is both encrypted and meets legal standards. They use a special type of encryption to make sure that the message is both private and cannot be tampered with. In our paper, we suggest making IncaMail even stronger by doing more of the security work directly on the user's device rather than on a central server. This not only makes the system more efficient but also less dependent on one central point. We tested our idea and found it to be faster (up to 14 times) than the current traditional methods. In summary, we are offering a way to make secure emails even more safe and efficient, by using the latest web technology (WebAssembly) and reducing trust in online platforms.

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Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

Why is it important?

In today's world, where everything is online, keeping our emails safe is super important. Both our personal chats and business talks need strong protection. Our work with IncaMail is unique because we have found a new way to keep emails safe while improving the speed of such protections using a technology called WebAssembly. This is a fresh look at email security that many people will find technically interesting. Our findings could mean a safer online conversation in the future for everyone sending emails.

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