Saturday, July 4, 2009

Google has promised to consider improvements to the security of a number of its services including Google Mail following criticism from US security experts.

The group of 38 computer scientists called on Google to use a standard encryption protocol, known as HTTPS, which is commonly used in online banking services to protect data while in transit. Google offers HTTPS, which stands for Hypertext Tranfer Protocol Secure, as an option in Google Mail, but is disable by default.

"Google customers face a very real risk of data theft and snooping, even by unsophisticated attackers," the group wrote in an open letter to Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive.

Responding to concerns, Alma Whitten, a software engineer for Google, said that the web giant is "currently looking into whether it would make sense to turn on HTTPS as the default for all Gmail users".

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