Secure / Encrypted Email

[Rodney_H_]

Howdy.

A new client needs customers to send them very sensitive data such as bank accounts and SSNs.

This makes me think that there has to be a way to send this to the client from the site user in a secure way.

Is there encrypted email? Secure email?

Or, would you approach this project differently? For example, would you let the visitor enter the sensitive data into a DB on a secure page, and then only send a NOTICE to the company with a link back to the secure section of the site where they can read the information online in a secure environment??

Please advise.

Much thanks, and season greetings all you PHPBuilders!!

[stolzyboy]

go with your latter idea, NO EMAIL...

get a SSL enabled web server and built a secure area and db for them to access mutually

again, DO NOT EMAIL SENSITIVE DATA

[MarkR]

Encrypted email is extremely difficult to set up, because it must be set up securely on the client machine - this typically means the client obtaining a certificate and somehow sending you the public key etc- all a bit of a pain in the arse.

The two common options are PGP and S/MIME- the latter is supported in most mail clients and uses certificates / keys similar to SSL certificate.

But it's really going to be pain to set up, then your client will (I can guarantee) promptly lose their private key and you're going to have to explain to them that the contents of those messages is lost forever. That won't make them happy.

Mark

[Rodney_H_]

Thanks, MarkR and stolzboy.

I appreciate it, and your insights helped me steer the client in the best direction.

Cheers!!