SmallNetBuilder

About PGP Universal

PGP Universal is a standalone server product that can be installed on any x86 computer. Due to potential hardware incompatibilities, PGP Corp. does not provide precise hardware specifications, though they do provide a list of supported machines.

PGP Corp. also recommends that systems running PGP Universal be relatively similar to the systems running the organization's email server, so as to to keep up with the mail demands of users.

Figure 1: PGP Universal gateway set up in front of mail server

The product uses Fedora Core 2 running the Linux 2.6 kernel as its basis, and is set up to run at the border of an organization's network, either logically in front of (Figure 1 ) or behind (Figure 2) a mail server.

Figure 2: PGP Universal internal set up behind mail server

According to the product specifications, PGP Universal supports Service Pack 1 of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Service Pack 3 of Microsoft Exchange Server 2000, Lotus Domino Server 6.5 and Domino Server 5.0.11, and Stalker CommuniGate 4.2. However, our tests showed that any mail server could be used with the product, so long as it implements the product-supported protocols of SMTP, POP, IMAP, MAPI, or Lotus Notes.

PGP Universal is currently being deployed on networks with anywhere from 20 users to nearly 100,000 users, and has the ability to be clustered with other Universal servers to provide for even more users. It is not without competition in the encryption market, however, as business-level encryption has become a hot item in the wake of privacy laws like HIPAA and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Voltage Security and Tumbleweed Communications both provide server-based email encryption solutions, while PostX provides encrypted delivery for bank statements, invoices, and other sensitive business material. But these products either cover only a few of the pieces of the security puzzle that PGP Universal covers, or rely on unproven, proprietary encryption techniques that have not been scrutinized by the security community.