What is email? | Email definition

Electronic mail, or ‘email,’ is a digital communication method that uses electronic devices to deliver messages.

What is email?

Electronic mail, commonly shortened to “email,” is a communication method that uses electronic devices to deliver messages across computer networks. “Email” refers to both the delivery system and individual messages that are sent and received.

Email has existed in some form since the 1970s, when programmer Ray Tomlinson created a way to transmit messages between computer systems on the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET). Modern forms of email became available for widespread public use with the development of email client software (e.g., Outlook) and web browsers, which enable users to send and receive messages over the Internet using web-based email clients (e.g., Gmail).

Today, email is one of the most popular methods of digital communication. Its prevalence and security vulnerabilities also make it an appealing vehicle for cyber attacks like phishing, domain spoofing, and business email compromise (BEC).

How does email work?

Email messages are sent from software programs and web browsers called email ‘clients.’ Individual messages are routed through multiple servers before they reach the recipient’s email server, similar to how a traditional letter might travel through several post offices before it reaches its recipient’s mailbox.

Once an email message has been sent, it follows several steps to its final destination:

1. The sender’s mail server, called a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA), initiates a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) connection.
2. The SMTP checks the email envelope data — the text that tells the server where to send a message — for the recipient’s email address, then uses the Domain Name System (DNS) to translate the domain name into an IP address.
3. The SMTP looks for a mail exchange (MX) server associated with the recipient’s domain name. If one exists, the email is forwarded to the recipient’s mail server.
4. The email is stored on the recipient’s mail server and may be accessed via the Post Office Protocol (POP)* or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). These two protocols function slightly differently: POP downloads the email to the recipient’s device and deletes it from the mail server. At the same time, IMAP stores the email within the client, allowing the recipient to access it from any connected device.
5. The ‘Date’ field contains the date the email is sent. This is a mandatory header field.
6. The ‘From’ field contains the email address of the sender. If the email address is associated with a display name, that may also be shown in this field. This is also a mandatory header field.
7. The ‘To’ field contains the email address of the recipient. If the email address is associated with a display name, that may also be shown in this field.
8. The ‘Subject’ field contains any contextual information about the message the sender wants to include. It is displayed as a separate line above the body of an email.
9. The ‘Cc’ (carbon copy) field allows the sender to send a copy of the email to additional recipients. The recipients marked in the ‘To’ field can see the email address(es) listed in the ‘Cc’ field.
10. The ‘Bcc’ (blind carbon copy) field allows the sender to send a copy of the email to additional recipients. The recipients marked in the ‘To’ field cannot see the email address(es) listed in the ‘Bcc’ field.

Body

The body of an email contains any information the sender wishes to send: text, images, links, videos, and/or other file attachments, provided that they do not exceed the email client’s size restrictions. Alternatively, an email can be sent without any information in the body field.

Depending on the options the email client provides, the body of an email can be formatted in plain text or HTML. Plain text emails do not contain any special formatting (like non-black font colors) or multimedia (like images). They are compatible with all devices and email clients. HTML emails do allow formatting and multimedia within the body field. However, some HTML elements may get flagged as spam by email filtering systems or may not display properly on incompatible devices or clients.

What is an email client?

An email client is a software program or web application* that enables users to send, receive, and store emails. Popular email clients include Outlook, Gmail, and Apple Mail.

Software- and web-based email clients each have advantages and disadvantages. Desktop email clients often have more robust security capabilities, streamline email management across multiple accounts, provide offline access, and allow users to back up emails to their computers. By contrast, web-based clients are usually cheaper and easier to access — since users can log in to their account from any web browser — but rely on an Internet connection and can be more susceptible to cyber-attacks.

*Originally, ‘email’ referred to desktop email clients, and ‘webmail’ referred to web-based email clients. Today, the term ‘email’ encompasses both systems.

What is an email address?

An email address is a unique string of characters that identifies an email account, or ‘mailbox,’ where messages can be sent and received. Email addresses are formatted in three distinct parts: a local part, an “@” symbol, and a domain.

For example, in the email address [email protected], “employee” denotes the local part, and “example.com” denotes the domain.

Imagine addressing a letter: the domain signifies the city where the recipient lives, while the local part specifies the street and house number at which the letter can be received.

Local-part

The local part tells the server the final location of an email message. It may include a combination of letters, numbers, and certain punctuation marks (like underscores). The maximum number of characters for an email address (including the local part and domain) is 320, though the recommended length is capped at 254 characters.

Domain

The domain may be a domain name, like example.com, or an IP address, like 192.0.2.0. In the former case, the SMTP protocol uses DNS to translate a domain name into its IP address before delivering the message to the next server.

Like the local part, the domain must adhere to certain formatting requirements established by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Approved domain names may include a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. An email address can also be formatted with an IP address in brackets instead of a domain name, although this is rare. The character limit for a domain name is 63.

Is email secure?

Although email is often used to exchange confidential information, it is not a secure system by design. This makes it an attractive target for attackers, who may intercept an unencrypted message, spread malware, or impersonate legitimate organizations. Email security threats include social engineering, domain spoofing, ransomware, spam, and more.

One of email’s most significant vulnerabilities is its lack of built-in encryption, leaving the contents of an email visible to any unauthorized party that might intercept or otherwise gain access to the message.

Many email clients offer one of two basic encryption capabilities to make email more secure: Transport Layer Security (or ‘TLS encryption’) and end-to-end encryption (or ‘E2EE’). During TLS encryption, messages are encrypted during transit (from user to server or server to user), and the email service provider retains possession of the private key used to set up this encryption. The email service provider can, therefore, see the unencrypted contents of the email. During end-to-end encryption (from user to user), messages can only be decrypted by the sender and recipient of the email.