Is hosted email on Webfaction's servers relatively private? Webfaction isn't a data mining company like Google so I am assuming you aren't scanning emails (except for defeating spam) but are mailboxes stored in plaintext that be viewed on the mail server or are they encrypted for relative security? I am considering moving my mail hosting to Webfaction and I want to make sure that it is private and a secure alternative. Thanks. asked 03 Jul '13, 01:30 Arkouro |
First, email on WebFaction is stored on separate mailservers, rather than on your WebFaction Account webserver.
Yes, this is correct.
No; they're stored in plaintext, using Maildir format.
Unfortunately we don't have any encryption services for email. For it to be secure, only a public/private key infrastructure would be feasible (if we used your password for a symmetric key encryption, either incoming email could not be encrypted or else we'd have to store your password, which would defeat the encryption entirely). However, any sort of public key infrastructure would require client-side support as well, so this is not something in typical demand. If you need email actually stored encrypted on the mailserver, I would recommend looking at setting up a private mailserver under a VPS. Be sure to keep your private key backed up! answered 03 Jul '13, 03:00 ryans ♦♦ Thanks for your answers, Ryan. My email doesn't much need military-grade encryption, but I wanted to make sure that it was actually secure in the event of a compromise or other unrelated event. Your answers may not deter me from hosting simply because configuring my own email server may result in vulnerabilities I am not aware of. As long as the inboxes aren't being pried into by anyone with admin access to the system, I think that hosting would be viable. Thanks again.
(03 Jul '13, 09:41)
Arkouro
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