Fortune.com has put together its annual predictions for cultural trends to watch for in 2015. One such prediction is the death of email as we know it. Pointing the the rise of collaboration tools such as Yammer and HipChat, as well as email management apps including Unroll.me and Accompli, the publication thinks that next year will be the first step toward the changing future of email. "Email isn’t going to die in 2015, or anytime in the foreseeable future, but this could be the year that alternatives finally start to gain traction," explains the magazine.

Security experts are warning consumers to beware of fake shipping confirmation emails this holiday season. A spate of these malicious emails have been going around. These emails ask consumers to confirm an online e-commerce order from what looks to be a real retailer such as Home Depot. However the links included lead back to a malicious site.

Mail to Self email app, allows iPhone users to email themselves links to read later without having to cut and paste. The tool adds a share button to articles, which allows users to avoid having to enter their own email address every time they want to email themselves some links. The app claims that it saves users 22 taps.

Brittany Maynard, the cancer patient who fought for the right to end her life with dignity last month, responded to an email just hours before she died. The email was a response to a note sent from her supporter Barbara Mancini of Philadelphia. Mancini, didn't expect to hear back from Maynard, but sent her a note thanking her for her bravery. Mancini, herself faced prosecution, after helping her terminally ill father with an assisted suicide. "Stories like yours and mine put human faces on a controversial topic that many politicians are happy to sweep under the rug," Maynard wrote in …

The Air Force is launching a new tool to help its email users be more secure online. The Digital Signature Enforcement Tool lets people who send emails via Microsoft Outlook on the Air Force's network double check to see if they have included personally identifiable information in the message. Last year the organization tracked about 500 PII breaches in three months on the network. The tool is aimed at preventing this kind of information from being included in emails, which could potentially be breached.

Email marketing messages led to 23.9 percent of transactions on Cyber Monday, according to a new report from research firm Custora. The company looked at the transactions of 100 online retailers, whose traffic includes 100 million shoppers, to explore the influence of email on orders. Interestingly, email was less effective this year than last year. According to the metrics, 27.7 percent of orders on Cyber Monday last year were led by email.

Spammers are taking advantage of the increases in shipping this holiday season and posing as FedEx in order to solicit personal details out of consumers. Phishing emails claiming to be from the shipping company have been ending up in consumers' inboxes. The emails link to a malware site where visitors are encouraged to share personal details.

Sony Pictures Entertainment executives sent out an email to employees last night responding to the massive breach that the company suffered earlier this week. In the email, executives Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton revealed that some personal employee information was leaked in addition to unreleased films. "It is now apparent that a large amount of confidential Sony Pictures Entertainment data has been stolen by the cyber attackers, including personnel information and business documents," said the email. "This is the result of a brazen attack on our company, our employees and our business partners."

Girl Scouts of America will soon be selling cookies online for first time and troops across the nation will be using email to promote sales. The new "Digital Cookie" tool will be available on Dec. 12th. Individual councils will be using the tool to sell cookies via email or to set up websites and manage sales. The app allows Girls Scouts to accept credit card payments.

The Indian government has warned its officials not to use private email services such as Gmail or Yahoo for official business. This week, the government updated its Public Records Act prohibiting public records from being taken out of the country, a threat among officials that use email providers whose servers are located outside of India. Section 4 of the Public Records Act now requires that any such data be stored on servers based in India.