Improving security in computational electronic mail systems

Abstract

Posits that computational electronic mail is essentially traditional electronic mail messages with embedded programs or interpretable scripts. States, at the recipient’s end, the mail reading software will distinguish it from normal mail, and executes it on confirmation by the recipient, and if appropriate, output from the program can be channelled back to the sender automatically for further processing. Shows that, despite its potential for many applications, it has not however, taken off in a big way. Major reasons stem from security concerns among users. Examines security issues associated with computational electronic mail systems and suggests some techniques and approaches for improving the security of such systems.