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Myth #1

It is nearly impossible for an e-mail snoop to find a particular message among all the billions that travel the Internet.

Reality

This myth assumes that all e-mail snoops are idiots, and that they would search randomly. In fact, if snoops are targeting you, they will zero in on the most likely place to find your e-mail: the server that handles it for you.

Myth
# 2

No one would be interested in my e-mail.

Reality

Those inclined to shady activity may not be interested in most of your e-mail, but you can be very confident that they are interested in any of your e-mail that might lead to monetary gain. In most of the documented cases of e-mail interception that I know of, the hackers targeted particular people or organizations, usually looking for information of economic value.

Myth #3

I don’t have to worry about e-mail, because if anyone wanted to spy on me, they could just burglarize my office, bribe my support staff or tap my voice phone line.

Reality

Very determined snoops might indeed try any or all of those approaches, but the problem is that for snoops who know what they are doing, it is enormously easier and safer to extract useful information from e-mail than it is to obtain information in any of the other methods suggested. Some analysts believe it is easier to monitor all the e-mail to and from a firm of hundreds of lawyers than it is to install and monitor a voice phone tap on just one person.

Myth #4

This is not an issue for me because my state bar does not require lawyers to encrypt e-mail to preserve the attorney client privilege.

Reality

Attorney client privilege is a doctrine of evidence law. It controls what evidence is discoverable or admissible in court. It does not in any way prevent a snoop from using information to hurt you or your clients outside any legal proceeding.

Myth #5

I don't have to worry about my e-mail because e-mail tampering is illegal.

Reality

Many of the hackers who know enough to be able to read your private e-mail don't know beans from federal law. Many of those who do know it's illegal don't really care, because they know it is extremely unlikely that a semi-competent e-mail thief would ever be caught, let alone prosecuted, let alone convicted, let alone face any significant punishment if unlucky enough to be convicted.

Myth #6

Encryption is too hard for lawyers to learn.

Reality

There may have been something to this at one time, but not any more. Easy to use "point and click" e-mail programs are inexpensive and widely available. As Erik Heels and Rick Klau note in their excellent book, Law Law Law On The Internet: The Best Legal Web Sites and More:

"Of course, most lawyers claim that encryption is too hard to use. These are the same people who would spend days learning how to program the presets in their BMW."