1) Tracability: Asymmetric encryption prevents anyone from handling the email unless the sender intended them to be able to decrypt it

2) Security: Again encryption, either Symmetric or Asymmetric can be used here

3) Receipt: The is more complex than you'd assume at first glance. If you do receive confirmation, how can you actually verify that the receipt that you receive is actually from your college and not spoofed? @Michael's suggestion of signing emails is relevant here and can help verify confirmation emails (and submitting the emails in the first place)

4) Viruses: Never open files unless you know where they came from, you trust the sender and you can verify the sender. Again, @Michael's suggestion of signing emails helps here as tampering with signed emails is close to impossible (say, impossible enough), however can you prevent the infected computer of a trusted college from sending you a copy of a virus? I guess the answer cannot be found in email..

I'd suggest using a digital asset protection system, like the one my company offers. We can offer two-form authentication which prevents viruses using key loggers or session hijacking techniques to send you virus infested files through our system.

Which ever way you decide, it doesn't hurt to manually run the file they sent you through a virus scanner before you run the file, or even better, use a webmail system (similar to Hushmail, Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail) which scans files for viruses before you even have them on your local network/computer.

5) Mobility: Asymmetric allows you to transport files in a way that can't be opened without a private key which live on your home and office computers.

I'd be happy to discuss ways of securing your digital assets further with any company who wishes to review their security protocols and practises.

It may apply in some specific cases but having two separate systems to track progress/deadline is a recipe for disaster IMHO.

I've seen in other corporations and you end up spending a lot of time in meetings reviewing the issues in the Excel file and not knowing for sure which one is fixed or not....

That's why we advise above to share/review one master copy of the document and track deadlines/tasks inside you review solution.

It's the basic principles behind Agilewords, our document review/approval solution.

Fabrice

As using SSL and encryption does help reduce this. What else would you add?