Is it safe to email scanned documents as attachments?

A lawyer I'm working with in relation to a real estate transaction
asked me yesterday scan some documents, and email them to him, as
attachments. (He is having problems with his fax line.)

At first I thought nothing of it, but then I began to wonder about
the safety of sending such attachments, especially considering that
I use Gmail. (I should add that the scanned documents contain
sensitive information.)

The practice of sending scanned documents as email attachments
appears to be pretty common. Is this a case of widespread foolishness,
or is this practice safer than it looks?

How about sending such attachments using a web-based mail service
like Gmail?

Thanks!

kynn

--
NOTE: In my address everything before the first period is backwards;
and the last period, and everything after it, should be discarded.

"kj" <socyl@987jk.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:g3j7na$sp3$1@reader2.panix.com...

> The practice of sending scanned documents as email attachments
> appears to be pretty common. Is this a case of widespread foolishness,
> or is this practice safer than it looks?

Hi Kynn,

Emailing anything that is not strongly encrypted can be compared to
sending it as a postcard. It can be intercepted by anyone having access to
one of the--usually numerous--systems that relay the message from sender
to recipient.

I suggest looking into PGP (or GnuPG).

--
Thor Kottelin
http://www.anta.net/

Antivirus, firewall, parental control: http://www.anta.net/sw/norman/

In article <g3j7na$sp3$1@reader2.panix.com>,
kj <socyl@987jk.com.invalid> wrote:

> A lawyer I'm working with in relation to a real estate transaction
> asked me yesterday scan some documents, and email them to him, as
> attachments. (He is having problems with his fax line.)
>
> At first I thought nothing of it, but then I began to wonder about
> the safety of sending such attachments

Compared to what, sending them as plain text email? Or compared to
sending them as snail mail?

--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***