Concept of Encryption in Lotus Notes
Basically, email encryption means protecting messages from an unauthorized access. In IBM notes, the message body of the emails is encrypted but not the header information like To, From, Subject, etc. But still, it can save a lot of data from an unauthorized person or organization. An IBM Notes user can encrypt mail sent to another user. There is a user with private as well as public key at the time of email encryption in Lotus Notes. The application uses the public key which is stored in the contacts of the sender to encrypt outgoing and saved the email. A user can also use S/MIME to encrypt the sent mail. But it is required to have recipient's public key to encrypt the mail. Encryption in Lotus Notes increases the speed of sending and opening of an email message.
What is the Use of Public and Private Keys in Lotus Notes?
Lotus Notes Encryption keys are used to encrypt and decrypt the email messages. These are also used to validate the digital signatures. In IBM Notes, public and private keys are related to each other mathematically but are also unique to the User ID. The public key is stored in IBM Notes certificate and on the other hand, the private key is stored in the User ID. One can encrypt the data while sending the public key from the certificate stored in Domino Directory. Private key decrypts the data at the time of receiving encrypted data.
How Encryption Works in Lotus Notes?
You must the internal functionalities of private and public keys in IBM Notes email application. One can encrypt the email message and secure it from unauthorized access. But you should how these keys work in Lotus Notes Encryption method in order to secure your email message. Following is the basic functionality:
- A user will send a message by selecting it with the Encrypt option. A random encryption key will generate after encrypting the message.
- Now, IBM Notes will encrypt the random encryption key with the receiver's public key. After that, it will append a new key to the message. The public key of the recipient will be stored in either Lotus Domino Directory or LDAP, so that a user can easily access them while adding sender's Contacts.
- If the sender sends message to multiple users, then the message will be encrypted only once and it will generate only one random key. The random key will encrypt the public key of each receiver.
- Now, the message is sent. The recipient will open the encrypted message. The mail application of the user will decrypt the random key with the help of the recipient's private key. The random key will decrypt the message.
- Now, the receiver can read the message after successful decryption of email. But somehow, if decryption fails, then a user will get a message that shows decryption failed and the mail application does not allow the user to access the message.
How to Encrypt Emails in Lotus Notes?
There should be internet certificates to monitor the steps. For Digitally signed mails and email encryption in Lotus Notes, follow the below steps:
- Open Notes mailbox. Go to File menu, click on Security >> User Security.
- Enter Lotus Notes password and then, click on Login button.
- Now User Security Window will open. Click on Mail and check Encrypt mail that you send.
- You can attach a digital signature to all the emails that you are sending. Click on Sign mail that you send checkbox option.
- There is an option to encrypt those emails that are only sent. There is saved copy in Your Sent mail and you can encrypt that email so that any unauthorized person could not access those mails. Select Encrypt saved copy of mail that you send option to do so.
- There is another option to encrypt incoming emails. All the emails in the folder will store in an encrypted form. For that, click on When receiving unencrypted mail, encrypt before storing in your mail file.
The Last Words
In the following article, we have discussed the importance of the email encryption in Lotus Notes. There are few options through which you can encrypt incoming and outgoing emails in Notes. It is very important to keep the data safe and secure. This can help a lot in saving the data from an unauthorized person or organization. Export NSF file to Outlook with expert recommended tool. Download now for free
