What should James use?

James is a network administrator working at a student loan company in Minnesota. This company processes over 20,000 student loans a year from colleges all over the state. Most communication between the company schools, and lenders is carried out through emails. Much of the email communication used at his company contains sensitive information such as social security numbers. For this reason, James wants to utilize email encryption. Since a server-based PKI is not an option for him, he is looking for a low/no cost solution to encrypt emails.

What should James use?
A . James could use PGP as a free option for encrypting the company’s emails.
B . James should utilize the free OTP software package.
C . James can use MD5 algorithm to encrypt all the emails
D . James can enforce mandatory HTTPS in the email clients to encrypt emails

View Answer

Answer: A

Explanation:

James should opt for PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) as it is a widely recognized method for encrypting emails. PGP provides a cost-effective solution for securing email communication, which is essential for the sensitive information handled by his company. It uses a combination of data compression, symmetric-key cryptography, and public key cryptography to secure emails. Each user has a pair of keys: a public key that is shared with others to encrypt emails to the user, and a private key that is kept secret by the user to decrypt emails they receive. This method ensures that even if the email is intercepted, without the corresponding private key, the contents remain unreadable.

Reference: The choice of PGP is supported by its longstanding reputation for providing secure email communication. It is designed to be used in scenarios where secure communication is necessary, and it’s a practical option for James since it doesn’t require a server-based PKI system. The other options listed do not provide the same level of security for email encryption. OTP (One-Time Password) systems are not typically used for email encryption, MD5 is a hashing algorithm