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cglenn3932

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Reading sniffer GMAIL traffic

So we have a sniffer capturing all network data to protect proprietary info.  Corporate email is easy to monitor since we operate that server.  Users still have personal gmail accounts -- and all those captured packets look like gobbledygook.  If a gmail user (assume not https, just http) sends an email saying "our top secret ingredient is chili peppers" why can't I find those packets in my EtherDetect Packet Sniffer?  When I test it by sending my own gmail account, I don't find any packets with clear text in them.  Is gmail using some new kind of encryption that isnt https but somehow in the body, they are doing all this encryption?
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Ghoti_AZ

I would imagine that the folks are Google are security- and bandwidth-conscious enough to compress, if not encrypt, data, even if it's not sent over a secure HTTP connection.
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They do gzip compress, but my sniffer supposedly uncompresses gzip stuff.  They do not encrypt because that would cost millions--heck billions of dollars in additional server costs.  You can use https or turn on encryption, but default is off (and my tests were using OFF).
Hi Dear
As Gmail bydefault Operates on SSL so that data you will get with sniffer will be encrypted and no useful information will be available. all files that are uploaded into gmail or hotmail are sent as encrypted data to server.
As Bydefault Gmail Uses HTTPS, so if you block that and force users to use HTTP. then you can sniff the usefull data.
Regards,
ASIF
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Kelvin_King
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There is an option in GMail to enforce SSL through entire session.  Although, that doesn't prevent being able to carry the cookie over into other less secure google applications.
Couldn't you just control access to the www.gmail.com website using your proxy or firewall?  You could also block this using DNS redirects to an internal cul de sac website stating that the Internet is to be used only for business use.