Sending info securely

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
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Location
west Texas
Display Name
Dave Taylor
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KMRF
I have opened a bank account for a pal who lives in Germany.
I want to let him have online access to it now.
I can just email him the account# and password, but am worried about security.
I guess I could just mail it to him (with invisible ink, encrypted by an Enigma)
what is a more secure way to send the password electronically than by email?
Or do I need to even worry about it?
I can email him the acct # and his wife the PW?
Skype it?
I suppose he can get the PW then log on and try to change it right away.
 
thinking with all these electronics at our disposal I should be able to save 4 gallons of avgas to transmit 6 characters.
 
Email is inherently insecure. Messages are sent in plain text and relayed through multiple servers before they reach their destination.

Look into PGP encryption. Have your freind get a key and send you the public portion and you put the info in a text document and encrypt it with his key. He'll have the other half of the key to unlock it.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
thinking with all these electronics at our disposal I should be able to save 4 gallons of avgas to transmit 6 characters.
Click to expand...

It costs me a few cents to call Germany. Call it cheap insurance and a heck of a lot simpler than PGP encrypting.
 
Agree on the phone call. Then tell 'em to immediately change the password.

Alternatively, send the account user name/ID in a separate channel from the passwd.
 
wsuffa said:
Agree on the phone call. Then tell 'em to immediately change the password.

Alternatively, send the account user name/ID in a separate channel from the passwd.
Click to expand...


At work (and we're EXTREMELY security conscious as a financial data center), the standard practice is exactly this (separation of channels). After successfully passing authentication/challenge of our identity, the security group will send us an email with our account name, and leave a voice mail on our line with the 'initial password', which is valid for a single login then must be changed.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I can email him the acct # and his wife the PW?
Click to expand...

That's what I was going to suggest. If you have two different e-mail accounts, send one message from each as well, and maybe wait a day in between. That'd make it pretty much impossible to match the two together.
 
it worked thks all, as usual.
emails when he was online and immediate change to PW worked out good.
 
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