The need to secure email is no longer exclusive to corporations. With technologies like the BlackBerry® smartphone making it easier for people of all walks of life to stay connected, the information that we transmit over the internet and through provider infrastructures, is being just as easily exploited by invisible foes like hackers, and other unauthorized snoops.

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10 million Americans will become victims of identity theft each year
 
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an Identity Thief has a 1 in 700 chance of being caught by law enforcement
 
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70% of Identity Theft victims may never recover from damages to their credit rating
 
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47% of Identity Theft victims may not be able to get a loan
 
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Communications service fraud (ex.: unauthorized access to wireless device, unauthorized access to email account, etc) is the number 2 most common reported source of Identity Theft cases
 
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there are currently 100 million wireless email users worldwide, a figure expected to rise to 300 million by 2010
 
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70% of wireless email users use email for personal reasons
 
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by 2010 there will be 1 known hacker to every 15 wireless email users worldwide

Some of the most trivial information we relay over the internet - that includes email - on a daily basis can be used to exploit us.

Right now, when you send an email from your BlackBerry® device it travels through a vast infrastructure before arriving at your contact's BlackBerry device. As it passes through the internet and wireless network, it does so in plain-text, and as such, it is also stored in your mailbox, and your contact's mailbox, in plain-text. This means that if the message is intercepted in transmission, or either of your mailboxes is hacked, the information in that message is unprotected and easily readable by the intruder.

See the below diagrams for more information on where your electronically transmitted information is vulnerable.

BlackBerry® DEVICE TO BlackBerry® DEVICE EMAIL FLOW DIAGRAM
(using BlackBerry® Internet Service, or BIS)

BlackBerry® DEVICE TO BlackBerry® DEVICE EMAIL FLOW DIAGRAM
(using BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, or BES, where both users are on the same system)

BlackBerry® DEVICE TO BlackBerry® DEVICE EMAIL FLOW DIAGRAM
(using BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, or BES, where users are on different systems)

BlackBerry® DEVICE TO BlackBerry® DEVICE EMAIL FLOW DIAGRAM
(using BlackBerry® Internet Service, or BIS, and BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, or BES)

eCrypt email encryption software gives everyone, regardless of their proficiency with encryption technology, or economical status, a fighting chance at protecting themselves, and the information they send electronically, from exploitation by intruders.