Insecure Roadrunner email

Did you know that every time your email client checks your mailbox using standard POP3 protocol, your user name and password are sent in the clear over the internet? This means, that anyone with the ability to "listen in" on your mail client's login session with your mail server can easily retrieve your user name and password as well as read your email. In addition, once they have your password, they could read your email without your knowledge or permission or they could even send SPAM email from your account, possibly getting you into serious trouble since spamming is a crime in most Western
countries these days.

It is true to say that the Internet is not the "safe" place it was 5 or 8 years ago when it was much smaller. Driven by the lust for money and infamy, SPAMMERS and hackers have become the scourge of the Internet.

The best way to ensure no one can get your password (at least not without going to a huge amount of trouble) is to POP your email using a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connection. This means that all data exchanged between your mail client and the server is encrypted with a digital security certificate making it [pretty close to] impossible for anyone with malicious intentions to steal your email and/or password.

In my recent conversation with Time Warner's technical support department, I was informed that SSL connections to their email servers is not available. I find this hard to believe. They should not only make SSL connections available, I would suggest they should REQUIRE SSL connections. I am in the process of migrating all of my email away from my Roadrunner account.

Realize that if you access your account using the Web interface, you are using an SSL connection. This problem only applies to those of us using the POP3 interface (Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Eudora, etc.).

Internet Service Providers like Time Warner need to demonstrate their commitment to security through their actions, not their words. Don't you agree?