HIGHWARE SHIPS SAFEMAIL PRO FOR THE MACINTOSH
Brussels, September 2, 1999. – Highware, has released the pro version of
its PGP compatible encryption software. People can communicate securely
with others who use SafeMail, or with people who use a different
implementation of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) — Mac, Windows or Unix.
The encrypted information — email or files — can be sent safely over the
internet, or using any electronic channel or media. Encryption is
recommended on the internet, because sending an email is much less secure
than sending an ordinary letter or a fax. Internet emails and files
normally travel in clear text from server to server and can be intercepted
by a variety of people — then read and even changed. With SafeMail the
information is safe. SafeMail is about privacy: protecting and exchanging
information in a secure way.
Olivier Merenne, Highware’s Managing Director, said “We want to improve
security for Macintosh computer users. We’d already made a good start
before that: Our company had developed a comprehensive file and access
security system for the Macintosh, and several other useful utilities.
There are hundreds of thousands of active PGP users out there, and the
Macintosh is making a comeback.”
SafeMail Pro has features that take the strain out of managing encryption
in corporations. For example, administrators can produce keys in batches
for employees. There’s no need to re-enter duplicate data for each key.
The ‘message block’ can also be personalised: the key-owner’s name, email,
key fingerprint or anything else can be included in plain text, above the
encrypted part of a message. That’s useful for people who receive the
messages, especially if they’re new to encryption.
Files can be encrypted and signed, just by using the Finder to add a suffix
to the filename. The decryption and signature verification happens
automatically when the suffix is removed.
“The advanced SafeMail Pro features are genuine time-savers and
conveniences,” said Mr Merenne. “Not just extra things for busy people to
learn. ”
“With SafeMail Pro, you can open multiple keyrings at the same time. So
it’s simple to administer different keyrings, and to drag and drop keys
from one keyring to another. You can also set up a list of as many
keyservers as you like and automatically connect to these servers when
you’re looking for someone’s key.”
‘Cryptlets’ are another time-saver — small applications the users can
create to hold one or more public keys. Any file or folder that’s dropped
onto a Cryptlet is encrypted with the keys held in that Cryptlet. A simple
drag and drop, with no dialogue or hassles.
SafeMail Pro will soon support AppleScript, for even more flexibility.
SafeMail also integrates with Eudora, a help to many users. The software
has an “Automatic Key Recognition” feature that selects the private key
related to the “From:” field (there’s an option to use another private key,
if necessary). Each user in the Eudora address book can be assigned a
specific key, so the software is really transparent: the message is
encrypted to each recipient automatically.
The Eudora plug-in supports both PGP and PGP/MIME for full compatibility.
(PGP/MIME requires the recipient to have the plug-in installed too, but the
straight PGP-mode can be decrypted by any PGP compatible software.)
Award-winning software
======================
Highware software is esteemed among Mac users. The company has won three
awards from Apple for creating new system utilities that were so apt that
people wondered why no one thought of them earlier. An even earlier win:
Inventing the ‘drag and drop between applications’ method itself, now used
by everyone. Highware also won a Ziff Davis Europe award for Technical
Excellence.
The company’s software is used by many of the largest corporations in the
world. They use it to secure their networks of Macs, or make the machines
handier to use. For example, ‘FileGuard’ software is a standard for
Macintosh OS security. Other examples are DiskGuard, PopupFolder,
FileCrypt, Personal Backup, MultiHome and OpenKeyServer. The software is
also widely used by individual Mac users everywhere.
More about the way SafeMail works
=================================
SafeMail uses public-key encryption. Messages or files are encrypted using
a person’s public key (a long number that the key’s owner doesn’t need to
remember or look at). And only the owner of that public key can decrypt
those secured messages. It’s done by software in the person’s computer: the
software uses a private key that’s related to the public key (the private
key is always kept private).
Anyone’s public key can be freely distributed and many keys are available
on public key servers on the internet. For example, the Keyserver.Net
network at http://www.keyserver.net/.
A SafeMail user can also digitally ‘sign’ a message or file. That lets the
person who receives the message check that it came from the sender, and
that it hasn’t been altered.
How to order
============
SafeMail Pro can be ordered on CD from any of our distributors. There is a
list at: http://www.highware.com/main-dist.html. For places where there’s
no Highware distributor, the software will also be available from the
highware.com website.
The cost for a single copy is US$89. Site licenses are available.
SafeMail comes in two versions: SafeMail and SafeMail Pro. SafeMail is
offered as shareware and is available only by electronic channels. To get a
copy of SafeMail, check at http://www.highware.com/main-sm.html or download
it at ftp://ftp.highware.com/pub/safemail/safemail201.sit or
http://www.highware.net/pub/SafeMail/safemail201.sit. To register the
shareware costs just $39. You can pay directly on the Highware website.
SafeMail Pro works on any Macintosh computer with system 7.6 or higher.
Highware, Inc.
109 avenue H. Jaspar
1060 Brussels, Belgium
Tel +32 2/537-6810
Fax +32 2/537-5155
info@highware.com
http://www.highware.com/