Arvig Webmail Security

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a protocol that provides privacy and data integrity between two communicating applications and is the most widely deployed security protocol used today.

TLS ensures that a secure connection is made with the intended recipient through encryption and identity verification.

Any time you make an online purchase, send an email, complete an online banking transfer or otherwise exchange sensitive data, you’re benefiting from TLS security, because it ensures that your data is encrypted, or protected from being read, intercepted or accessed by outside audiences.

TLS is adopting a new, more improved and more secure standard—and it’s being rolled out across the digital spectrum, including by apps like your browser and email client. As a result, the older, less secure standards—known as TLS 1.0 and 1.1—are slowly being phased out in favor of TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3.

Companies everywhere—such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple and now the host of Arvig’s email service, Atmail (or Webmail, as you know it)—are all ensuring their products use this new standard because the weaker, outdated protocols leave sensitive customer data potentially at risk.

In the coming months, Webmail will end support for applications using TLS 1.0 and 1.1. In this case, that will affect older versions of email clients such as Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail and browsers such as Google Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox and others.

The good news is, most users running updated browsers and email apps won't even notice a change. Users on older technology like Windows Live Mail, however, are most likely to be affected. Even so, there's still time to prepare.

Most browsers—Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox—and apps like Outlook will automatically update, as long as your device is connected to the internet, you follow software update prompts and you regularly restart your device.

Older operating systems such as Windows 7 and 8, or previous versions of Mac OS might not run newer versions of Outlook or Apple Mail. These older systems are particularly vulnerable to attack because they can’t support newer security protocols. In that case, you might want to consider upgrading your operating system.

This online tool will analyze your browser for TLS support and other vulnerabilities. For a list of supported browsers and email clients, click here.