Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Guidelines on Electronic Mail Security

Published

Author(s)

Miles C. Tracy, Wayne Jansen, Karen A. Scarfone, Jason Butterfield

Abstract

This document was developed in furtherance of NIST's statutory responsibilities under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002, Public Law 107-347. The purpose of the publication is to recommend security practices for designing, implementing, and operating email systems on public and private networks. It contains information on popular email encryption standards and other standards relating to email. It presents general information on securing mail servers? operating systems and specific guidance on securing mail server applications, protecting messages traversing servers, and securing access to mailboxes. It also provides information regarding email client security and mail server administration. [Supersedes SP 800-45 (September 2002): http://www.nist.gov/manuscript-publication-search.cfm?pub_id=151267]
Citation
Special Publication (NIST SP) - 800-45 Ver 2
Report Number
800-45 Ver 2

Keywords

email, electronic mail, FISMA

Citation

Tracy, M. , Jansen, W. , Scarfone, K. and Butterfield, J. (2007), Guidelines on Electronic Mail Security, Special Publication (NIST SP), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=50953 (Accessed October 14, 2024)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.

Created February 19, 2007, Updated October 12, 2021