Press releases

New Security Standards: The Bat! 6.1

Ritlabs, SRL concentrates on security of e-mail in transit

Chisinau, 19.12.2013 – In the times of e-mail tracking and espionage scandals a secure e-mail program is especially important. The Bat! is a professional alternative to the other e-mail clients on the market. It is true that the developers of The Bat! have always prioritized the safety of e-mails and personal data against malware and theft. Therefore, a number of e-mail traffic encryption protocols and the encryption of the local message base files have been implemented in the program. Several examples:

The Bat! secures data transmission – in version 6.1 additional protocols have been implemented

The Bat! supports the IMAP4, POP3 an SMTP protocols as well as the SSL and TLS cryptographic protocols, which ensure encrypted connections between the e-mail program and the mail server. The new version of The Bat! comes with the support of SSL 3.0, an older version of the TLS 1.0 protocol. The reason for that is the fact that still there are mail servers offering connections only via SSL 3.0, although the majority of providers have implemented TLS 1.0 a long time ago.

Mr. Maxim Masiutin, CEO of Ritlabs, SRL, has commented on this: "I find it worrying that some e-mail providers still rely on the SSL 3.0 protocol, which appeared in 1996. 99,3 % of all web-sites and e-mail providers are using the newer TLS 1.0. It’s unclear why the rest of providers are yet to update to the newer version of the protocol“.

Now The Bat! supports SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 and is therefore compatible with all the e-mail servers. It is the only e-mail client to support the hardware CRAM-MD5 authentication with USB-token. Therefore, The Bat! is able to establish secure connections with the mail servers anytime.

Mr. Maxim Masiutin added: "We have implemented the old SSL 3.0 protocol to give The Bat! users the possibility to send and receive messages with e-mail services that still use the old protocol and probably need more time to get up-to-date“.

The Bat! encrypts contents and archives

The Bat! is able to send and receive messages encrypted using S/MIME, PGP and GnuPG. Keeping the encrypted messages on the mail server is also safe, because in the event of theft or unauthorized access the intruder will not be able to decrypt them. Additionally, The Bat! uses a strong encryption mechanism to protect its message base files on-the-fly. Without the Master Password and/or the hardware token the program won’t even start. This way, all the messages, address books, configuration files, etc. are securely kept on the drive and are only accessible to the owner.

The Bat! protects against malware

To protect e-mail against malware and intrusion the program offers effective tools and mechanisms, which can be configured and automated. For instance, the internal HTML-viewer, unlike others, does not ever execute embedded scripts. The Image Download Manager blocks all contents from remote servers by default and allows the user to define individual rules in respect of certain messages. This way no malware can penetrate into the computer via e-mail. The tracking of messages using hidden HTML elements, such as “Pixel Tracking” is therefore excluded.

The Bat! offers simply more security

Thanks to the open specification of the programming interface third parties can develop custom anti-virus and anti-spam plug-ins to check the incoming and outgoing mail. All the processing is carried out in RAM and no sensible data ever appears unencrypted on the drive. Additional security is offered via the support of ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) and DEP (Data Execution Prevention).

Besides, The Bat! offers the possibility to use the self-issued certificates within a company instead of using services of third-party certificate authorities such as Thawte or Verisign to request certificates.

All the security features are transparent and easy to adjust. For example, The Bat! displays additional functional icons for the digitally signed and/or encrypted messages allowing the user to execute relevant actions directly from there. The same actions are also reachable from the menus.

Functionality and ease of usage at the familiarly high level: The Bat! Version 6.1 Though the new The Bat! 6.1 is yet another step forward in terms of security it maintains the high comfort of usage. The advanced Sorting Office, Inbox Analyzer and the support of IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) are only a few samples out of many. Since the last major update to version 6.0 the users can work with multiple languages simultaneously. For example, it allows to use the German language under a Russian OS without erroneous presentation of such words as “unverschlüsselt“ (instead of “unverschlusselt“).

The list of all changes you can find at:
http://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/whats_new/detail.php?ID=4964

Additional information on The Bat! you can find at:
http://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/features.php

Screenshots The screenshots of the new version The Bat! 6.1 can be downloaded here:
http://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/interface.php

System requirements and languages

The Bat! 6.1 is available in two versions – 32-bit and 64-bit – and has very few system requirements. The Bat! 6.0 is available in 17 languages.

Prices

The Bat! 6.1 Home Edition costs 19,95 Euro, The Bat! 6.1 Professional Edition costs 39,95 Euro.

Users who purchased The Bat! after September 26, 2013 can use all versions The Bat! 6.xx without additional payment.

Users who purchased the license between December 23, 2010 and September 26, 2013 can use The Bat! 6.0 without additional payment, but starting with the version 6.1 the new registration key will be needed.

More information about licenses and upgrade conditions: http://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/order.php

The Bat! 6.0 as well as other Ritlabs, SRL products can be downloaded here:
http://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/download.php

About Ritlabs, SRL

Software producing company Ritlabs, SRL specializes in high-quality communicational products, which fulfill the requirements of safe and protected from viruses information transfer. The products developed by Ritlabs, SRL - The Bat! Voyager, Argus, SecureBat!, BatPost, DosNavigator – rely on the experience and the knowledge of the needs of Ritlabs, SRL customers. The Bat! first entered the world market in 1998 and nowadays is the leading email client having millions of users worldwide. Ritlabs, SRL customers range from home-computing enthusiasts to business and government organizations including banks and other financial institutions, the aerospace industry, oil and gas producers, IT software and hardware companies, and a wide spectrum of small and large businesses. Ritlabs, SRL is based in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, city with a long history of technology development expertise.


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