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The Technical Zone... The Geeky forum... Use this forum to discuss technical aspects of email, from authentication protocols to encryption.

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Old 26 Mar 2015, 01:31 AM   #1
kaisersoze
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Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 12
Wink Redirected email - is it kept on original server

Hi all,

Suppose I want to get rid of my gmail account and I set up redirection to the new address...

How does this work? If an email is sent to my gmail, is it stored and then forwarded to the new address or does it get "bounced" to the new address without touching Gmails storage? First option seems creepy. Second one seems nice.

Gmail is really just an example. Im interested in learning if the email can still be traced and read by the first hops.

Many thanks to you all.
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Old 26 Mar 2015, 05:10 PM   #2
janusz
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If you close your account (with Gmail or whoever), it's, well, closed. This means than any messages sent to that address will be returned, as undeliverable. So you cannot redirect from a closed account.

If you do not mean closing the account: messages are first delivered.to (say) Gmail and only then redirected elsewhere. Usually there is an option to keep the original at the original destination (say Gmail) or delete it after forwarding. But there is no way of redirecting from account X without messages going to X in the first place.
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Old 28 Mar 2015, 08:54 AM   #3
n5bb
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Arrow Email end-to-end security issues

In general, email messages should be treated as insecure. The only way to guarantee that someone can't read the message is to use high grade encryption with a one-time key. This is impractical for most uses, so here are the security implications when you send an unencrypted email. Assume that you have an email client on your PC and the recipient also has an email client on their PC. When I say below "can read your email" I mean that someone could read the email if they tried. Of course, physical and other security policies may prevent bad actors from getting access to the points I describe.
  • The message can be read by software on your PC as you type into the email client (keystroke logger) or other malware which might be installed by computer viruses infecting the email client and the networking software in the PC.
  • If your email provider (Gmail or some other company) does not enforce encrypted client connections (SSL or TLS), then anyone with access to the network data stream between your PC and your email provider can read the email using the RF signal. If you use an unencrypted WiFi connection to your PC, then someone within a few hundred feet can read the email using RF monitoring. If the connection is unencrypted, anyone with access to the network at any point (such as at a cable television company who supplies your Internet service) can read the email. So most good email providers suggest or require a secure connection between your client and their server.
  • Your email provider can read the email. A copy of the message must be temporarily stored, and it might be stored for a very long time. The connection details (your IP address, the date/time, the destination IP) are logged by your provider, and these connection logs might be kept indefinitely.
  • Your email provider then must open an SMTP connection to the destination email server found from a DNS lookup of the address in the "To" field. This connection may use paths with a large amount of email traffic from thousands of users, so this is an obvious place for a bad actor to attempt to capture unencrypted messages. Many email providers still use unencrypted SMTP connections to other providers, and these messages can be read by others. Many (but not all) email providers now use opportunistic encryption for their SMTP connections to other providers, and messages can't be read by others when such techniques are used. Note that both the origination and destination email systems must use TLS encryption for this to work.
  • The destination email system can read the message.
  • If the message is forwarded, then the earlier considerations of opportunistic SMTP connections and security at the forwarding email provider are again important. So forwarding will (in general) reduce email security and can lead to delays and problems with authentication of email (DKIM, SPF, sender IP blocking, etc.).
  • The destination user has the same security issues described above for the sender.
  • Using webmail with secure https connections at one or both ends could conceivable improve the security. There won't be saved messages in local email clients which others could later read, and the security at your end and the final destination will be mainly limited only by the browser local security and the encryption algorithms used by the browser and email provider. Old operating systems (iOS 5, Windows XP), new operating systems which aren't being patched often, and old browsers which aren't being updated with the latest patches are vulnerable to security breaches.
  • Old network routers (such as those used in your house or WiFi hotspots) may be insecure, since they may be easy for others to hack into if the default password is in place, and since they are rarely updated with new software they probably don't have the latest encryption security patches.
So you need to remember that if network connections don't use encrypted connections using the latest security patches, a wide range of places between the email providers are susceptible to monitoring by others. You also need to find email providers you trust at both ends of the email conversation, and don't use message forwarding. Recent operating systems and browsers or email clients with all security updates applied are very important for securing email. The many Windows security patches released in early March are an example of updates which needed to be applied immediately by all users, since significant vulnerabilities had been found.

It's also important to scan all systems regularly with good anti-malware security software.

Bill
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Old 9 Apr 2015, 09:55 PM   #4
popowich
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Gmail has the option for you to forward new email to a different email address and not store a copy in your email account.

Most email providers will maintain the original headers when forwarding an email.

LuxSci Anonymous SMTP will let you send email that does not contain your personal IP address and original headers.
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