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Are you in compliance with your corporate directives not to transmit un-encrypted information across the internet? Most people ignore this directive and e-mail all kinds of confidential project plans, work schedules, and project communications across the internet without proper encryption. Be aware that this information may be beneficial to your competitors or the competitors of your client.

Many people assume a level of confidentiality regarding the Internet that simply doesn't exist. A simple "tracert" DOS command will show you the large number of companies outside of your control and supervision that carry your information. An encrypted e-mail message or SSL session can help, but are not foolproof.

Here is a sample "tracert" command I used to check the hops between my system and Brusters Ice Cream. You can use www.arin.net to resolve IP addresses that "tracert" cannot.

C:\>tracert www.brustersicecream.com

Tracing route to brustersicecream.com [216.25.101.44]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms ***.***.***.***
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 49 ms 49 ms 48 ms ***.***.***.***
4 51 ms 51 ms 50 ms ***.***.***.***
5 52 ms 50 ms 51 ms 205.152.99.169
6 50 ms 51 ms 50 ms 65.83.237.176
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 53 ms 122 ms 53 ms so-7-0-0-0.gar1.Atlanta1.Level3.net [67.72.8.41]
9 52 ms 52 ms 53 ms ae-1-51.bbr1.Atlanta1.Level3.net [4.68.103.1]
10 71 ms 70 ms 68 ms ae-2-0.bbr1.Washington1.Level3.net [4.68.128.201]
11 69 ms 69 ms 71 ms ae-14-55.car4.Washington1.Level3.net [4.68.121.145]
12 69 ms 70 ms 68 ms sprint-level3-te.Washington1.Level3.net [4.68.111.170]
13 70 ms 70 ms 70 ms sl-bb24-rly-13-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.20.188]
14 67 ms 69 ms 69 ms sl-bb21-rly-10-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.14.145]
15 67 ms 68 ms 67 ms sl-bb21-atl-6-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.20.176]
16 68 ms 69 ms 68 ms 144.232.29.68
17 70 ms 69 ms 68 ms 63.169.232.138
18 69 ms 68 ms 68 ms 216.187.115.189
19 67 ms 68 ms 67 ms 216.187.115.198
20 68 ms 69 ms 67 ms ATL2PrdDsRt02-vlan4.net.interland.net [64.224.0.100]
21 68 ms 69 ms 68 ms 216.25.101.44

Trace complete.

C:\>

In this case, this went through BellSouth, Level3, Sprint, Peer 1 Network, and Interland before it finally arrived at its final destination. These routes can easily change, so it is possible for someone to intercept your information without your knowledge.