Glossary of Terms/Definitions

Activation Code – After registering your new eCipher account, an activation code will be delivered to your inbox. The purpose of this step is to help verify that you have ownership of the email address registered. Once you receive the eCipher Activation code, enter it into eCipher to complete account activation. If you do not receive your activation code within 5 minutes, please check your junk mail.

AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) – AES is a symmetric encryption algorithm invented by Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen. AES is an encryption standard used by the US government. The NSA is has approved AES for use up TOP SECRET level. eCipher uses AES-256, the strongest key size available.

Custom Greeting or “Cover Letter” – When using eCipher this is the default clear-text greeting that accompanies the encrypted email content. The “Greeting” instructs recipients how to view their secure email message. The “Greeting” can be customized by 1) opening eCipher 2) clicking “Settings”, then “Sending” 3) checking “Insert customized greeting as unprotected message”, 4) and clicking “Customize”.

The default eCipher reads as follows:

I use eCipher to secure my email messages. To view and exchange secure email with me, you will need to download eCipher. See the instructions below.
______________________________________________________
If you already have eCipher: Just open the eCipher secure message (.safe file) attached to this email. Don’t have eCipher? Get it free! eCipher makes it easy to send and receive secure email. If you don’t already have eCipher, download the free version here: http://www.ecipher.com

Have questions?
Learn more about eCipher at: http://www.ecipher.com/about_us.html
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Default Account – Located under “Settings” – “Accounts”, your Default Account is the email address that is used to encrypt email messages.

Delivery Receipts – When your recipient opens your secure email message, you will receive a Delivery Receipt from eCipher Receipt Service (receipt@eCipher.com). Delivery Receipts enable you to see when your message was opened and who opened it.

Digital Rights Management – Digital Rights Management, more commonly known as DRM, is used to protect intellectual property from being freely distributed to non-authorized individuals. Encryption and access control are the basis of DRM. With eCipher, secure email authors can enable DRM controls such as “Prevent Forward”, “Prevent Print”, “Prevent Copy” and “Prevent Save as…” to help secure their email and PDF attachments from unauthorized use.

eCipher “Anywhere” (zero-download secure email delivery) – Using eCipher “Anywhere” customers can send secure emails to anyone with a web-enabled device. With “Anywhere” secure email recipients do not have to download software to view encrypted messages. Recipients are required to complete a one-time email account registration before they can read and reply to secure emails.

eCipher “Toolbar” – This is the primary eCipher interface which sits on the desktop. The eCipher Toolbar is designed as a transient application (similar to iTunes™ or IM™) to enhance the efficiency of sending and receiving secure emails. The toolbar enables you to drag and drop items onto it. With eCipher one can send and receive secure emails using almost any email client.

Encryption – Encryption is a process of turning readable plaintext into ciphertext. Ciphertext is designed to be unreadable to anyone who does not possess the key that can be used to decrypt the information back into its original, readable format.

Encrypted Email, Email encryption – eCipher encrypts email using strong 2048 RSA encryption. When email messages (and attachments) are encrypted they can only be deciphered and read by the intended/authorized recipients of the secure email.

Hash Function – A hash takes an data input of any length and generates an output of a fixed length (generally a smaller number), this is known as a hash value. It is extremely difficult to calculate the original input from the hash value. Thus, hash values are often used to check that message integrity has been preserved.

HIPAA – Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act passed by Congress in 1996. Essential Security Software is focused on helping organizations secure Protected Health Information. For more information on how eCipher can help you comply with HIPAA click here.

Key Exchange – In cryptography, this is the exchange of a secret key or keys from one party to another. When using a public/private key pair (as eCipher uses with RSA), the public key can be given to anyone and only the holder of the private key can decrypt the data that was encrypted with the public key.

RSA – RSA is an cryptographic system invented by R. Rivest, A. Shamir, and Aldleman and published in 1978. RSA is the most popular public-key encryption system in use today. RSA works by multiplying two very large prime numbers. The product of these primes is made public while the primes numbers are kept secret. RSA is effective because of the tremendous difficulty in trying to factor these primes from the published, “public key” value. No efficient algorithms exist today inverting or cracking the RSA algorithms as long as the factors are kept secret.