Secure Mail Transfer Protocol (SecMTP)

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is a common protocol for transferring email messages worldwide. SMTP is anonymous and provides only the basic functions required to transfer a message, namely specifying a sender, recipients, and message text. SMTP was designed without consideration for security. We propose a new protocol, Secure Mail Transfer Protocol (SecMTP), to provide user-to-user secure email services with a seamless interface with existing SMTP clients. SecMTP is an extension service for SMTP. The SecMTP architecture addresses the major security goals: confidedentiality, integrity, authentication, non-repudiation, and certification. We describe the SecMTP specifications and architecture, and compare it with the current mail transfer technologies.