When it comes to email, it is a very difficult communication medium to properly secure. In fact, if secure communication is your priority, you should avoid using email all together. With all recent revelations made by Edward Snowden, the issue has become much more apparent to the general public that was much less aware how easily email could be snooped on. Earlier this year, encrypted email services Lavabit and Silent Circle both shut down their servers over giving in to the demands of the NSA to infringe on their privacy policy. The story quickly circulated that Edward Snowden had an account with Lavabit and probably played an important role in the pressure put on them by the NSA.
The problem with securing email is that it needs to be encrypted end-to-end to avoid it being intercepted while traveling through intermediary networks, and the recipient also needs to have the same encryption system. These systems, although free, are often hard to setup, and trying to convince the other party of the importance to do so may be futile. The way email protocols work, also facilitate data leakages, due to the nature of the email sitting on a server waiting to be retrieved. However, if you still need to use email communications for sensitive data, or simply want to keep your emails private, there’s a fair selection of privacy advocates offering encrypted secure email services free of cost.
ProtonMail
The one that stuck out the most over all other secure email services is ProtonMail. When the leaked documents by whistleblower Edward Snowden first surfaced, scientists at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, discussed their concerned over NSA surveillance and other programs alike. A group of physicists and engineers collectively put their massive computing capabilities to work at creating and secure email service like no other.
ProtonMail was born and it quickly gained notoriety among the privacy community with its bold stance against government surveillance. They kept full control of all their mail servers in Switzerland to avoid any forced shut downs or requirements to provide any server data to U.S. or other foreign surveillance organizations. Forbes has called ProtonMail “the only email system the NSA can’t access” but what makes them better than most other encrypted email providers? Even Gmail now offers some level of end-to-end encryption.
ProtonMail had a huge response to their Beta launch and are currently at full server capacity and expansion is underway. You can still head to their website and reserve your own @protonmail.chaddress and invitations will be sent out as soon as server capacity allows.
ProtonMail offers full end-to-end email encryption, from start to destination. The encryption happens at the user’s level, making it impossible for ProtonMail to have ever seen the original content. The email is already encrypted when it reaches their Switzerland servers and the recipient’s email password is the only key to that email.
Unlike most other secure email providers, ProtonMail does not require any kind of setup, allowing just about anyone to easily use the website on their browser on all devices thanks to a clean responsive design.
ProtonMail does not have the keys to decrypt any of the emails sent across their network, unlike services like Gmail, who do have the power to decrypt email messages. If authorities would request keys, they would not even have that possibility, only retaining encrypted data on the servers.
Strategically based in Switzerland, ProtonMail will decline any third party requests from overseas organizations or governments. Local government values privacy and has a very low wiretapping and data seizure track record, used explicitly to prevent crime.
ProtonMail has refused offers from various investors to keep their integrity intact. Instead, they have opted for crowd funding methods to keep them afloat, allowing their user base community to donate to the cause, while keeping conflict of interest investors at bay. This decision has proven to be fruitful as they have recently surpassed 200% of their latest campaign goal amount.
ProtonMail will be offered free of cost, but with limited storage. As an additional revenue stream, users will be able to pay $5 for 1Gig of inbox storage. The funds are essentially for expansion and maintenance of the infrastructure.
That’s a whole lot of support for one email service provider, what about everyone else? Well, there are many other encrypted email services available, but with recent revelations about XKeyscore, it is known that using these providers from any country, where privacy law enforcement is weak or strong, remains very risky. Many accusations stemming from as early as 2007 claim that some of the most popular providers such as HushMail failed to provide adequate protection against the NSA. We cannot confirm or deny these claims, but due to the nature of how emails work, it is hard to fully vouch for any secure email service. Instead, we have compiled a list of free and paid providers and tools available that you can have a look at.
ProtonMail – Recommended
TorGuard.net – High Encryption secure VPN service to match with encrypted email.
GnuPG – Implementation of OpenPGP for any email service, requires advanced setup.
Remember to use email on extremely sensitive data only if necessary, but if we talk in more realistic terms, the majority of us don’t have anything to hide. It comes back to the simple principal that no one else should be reading your emails but you. Think of how creepy it would be if the mail man read your mail back when hand written letters prevailed and email was not even a term yet. The act of opening someone else’s mail is not only frowned upon, it is criminal. Why should it be any different with our emails? The safety issues are also very uncertain and complex, as collected data mining can allow for a collection of data to be used on a sparse time lime.
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Started in 2013, ProtonMail specifically cites Edward Snowden as an inspiration for their service. They make a big deal out of two things: the fact that they are based in Switzerland, and their two password system. The gist is that ProtonMail is marketing themselves as the “Swiss bank account” of email providers. Indeed, they say just that on the pagedetailing their security measures: their servers “are colocated in some of the same secured and guarded datacenters used by Switzerland’s famed private banks”. Elsewhere they boast of a “secure datacenter facility hidden inside a Swiss granite mountain” and that this is a “former military command center deep inside the Swiss Alps”.
This all sounds very impressive, but what’s the nitty gritty? The touted two password system works as follows: the first password logs the user into their account. This leads to a page titled “Decrypt mailbox” prompting them to enter a second password. This password unlocks the user’s symmetrically encrypted 2048 bit private RSA key which in turn decrypts their mailbox. The decryption process happens entirely locally in the client’s browser using JavaScript so that there is no room for ProtonMail to intercept the passphrase protecting the secret key. The private key and mailbox are both encrypted using AES-256. It is an implementation of OpenPGP.js.
ProtonMail is still in beta but the user experience is on the whole very smooth and mature. There may be a short wait if you request an account at the moment, as a sudden spike in popularity coinciding with their IndieGoGo campaign maxed out their servers.
In the meantime many exciting features are in the pipeline. While they strive to make the encryption and decryption invisible in the name of usability, optional key management is on its way allowing users to import GPG keys of non-ProtonMail users so that the security can interoperate with other services. Aliases are also coming soon.
If you and a non-ProtonMail user can agree on a passphrase beforehand, you can also exchange end-to-end encrypted messages with people who have no knowledge of cryptography whatsoever. ProtonMail’s code is not yet open source but they have announced plans to release it in the future.
Tutanota
If you’re looking for a service that’s a little more mature than ProtonMail, the German provider Tutanota may be for you. Founded in 2011, theyofficially left beta on the 24th March 2015. Notably, Tutanota does notutilise the popular PGP method for encrypting messages. Instead, theyexplain, theirs is a custom solution using 2048 bit RSA keys and AES-128 created on the compelling grounds that PGP does not encrypt the subject line of emails. If you are wary of using cryptography that’s less tried and tested, some reassurance may be found in the fact that Tutanota, unlike ProtonMail, has already open sourced its code. Tutanota also has apps for iOS and Android, and a plugin for Outlook so that users don’t have to access their accounts using a web browser – all developments that are still on the cards for ProtonMail.
However Tutanota logs users in and decrypts their mailboxes using the same passphrase, which means a little more trust is required if you are to believe the claim that they can’t and won’t access users’ messages. Nonetheless the user experience is just as smooth as ProtonMail’s and Tutanota also allows email exchanges encrypted by passphrase for private correspondence with users of other services.
If you need your account immediately, Tutanota is probably the best choice as there is no longer a waiting period to take advantage of their services. When creating your account you can also choose from a variety of domains: tutanota.de, tutanota.com, tutamail.com, keemail.me, and my personal favourite: tuta.io. Tutanota warns that the account creation process freezes if you use Tor Browser inside Windows, so watch out if that is your intention, but they are working on fixing this.
Lavaboom
Also from Germany is Lavaboom which started in 2013 and might be described as a cross between ProtonMail and Tutanota in that it utilises OpenPGP.js but uses a single password system. The similarly named Lavabit famously shut down rather than hand over its private SSL key to the US government as part of its investigation into Edward Snowden’s leak. Lavaboom, which came about shortly afterwards, is clearly named in its honour.
Lavaboom has opted to use 4096 bit RSA keys – twice the size of ProtonMail’s and Tutanota’s. If a strong key is the most important thing to you, this may be the best choice. When creating your account, you are offered to choose between using “Lavaboom sync”, meaning Lavaboom’s servers store your private keys encrypted or saving your keys to your browser’s cache. The downside of the latter method is that in the event your cache is wiped, you will no longer be able to access your emails unless you have saved a back up of your key and re-upload it when you next log in, so be careful that you don’t lose access to your inbox by destroying your keys.
I did find that Lavaboom’s user experience isn’t quite as mature as Tutanota’s and ProtonMail’s. When creating my account and sometimes when logging in using Tor Browser inside Linux, the loading page freezes at “Initializing OpenPGP.js” requiring me to refresh the page until it works properly. Nonetheless, Lavaboom is still in beta so we can expect quirks like this to be ironed out. I hope that in the course of this, the process of choosing between caching your keys or using Lavaboom sync is made clearer, as it was initially a bit confusing for a provider whose aim is make encryption easy. However it could be appealing if you’re looking for more fine-grained control than ProtonMail and Tutanota can offer.
Honourable Mentions
You may notice that not only do the three providers reviewed here all use JavaScript-based encryption and decryption, but they are also all hosted on the clearweb. Though they are Tor-friendly, you may be looking for providers that host their own Tor-hidden services.
If so, Lelantos is a paid though cheap service on Tor who may interest you. It is a little more advanced than the other three but it offers some impressive features like allowing users to import their own public key so that, if they are sent unencrypted emails, they are encrypted automatically on entering the server. While it is much better if the sender encrypts the message before sending, it is still preferable to no encryption at all. Members are also allowed to register over 100 aliases and create temporary addresses. A lifetime account costs 0.136BTC, or about $32.
Sigaint offers both free and paid versions of their service. Their upgrade page explains the difference between the two plans: a $30 lifetime subscription grants you increased storage, SMTPS/IMAPS/POP3S support, full disk encryption, easier PGP integration, Bitmessage support, and priority customer service.
Ruggedinbox.com is a fully free email provider offering both clearweb access over TLS/SSL and a Tor onion site. If you’d like a privacy-friendly email provider and don’t mind managing your own PGP keys, this is an attractive choice. IMAP, POP3, and SMTP are all free of charge and you can also create temporary accounts with a pre-set expiry date. When logging in to web mail, you can choose between the JS-less SquirrelMail or the more modern RoundCube which requires JS. While free, users are encouraged to donate to their BTC address on their homepage. RuggedInbox also sells VPSes to those who want their own private email servers.
While it may be a nuisance, the best security is always offered by being in control of your own private key. Services that simplify key management often sacrifice a large amount of that control, but for the purpose of emailing people without knowledge of cryptography, the increase in security and privacy is significant when compared to providers like Hotmail or Gmail. Therefore, if all you are looking for is to go about your daily activities with greater privacy, providers like ProtonMail, TutaNota and Lavaboom offer you just that. For extraordinary protection, never trust your key management to a third party.
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The Only Email System The NSA Can't Access
Exchange Secure & Encrypted Emails With VaultletSuite
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5 of the Best Secure Email Services for Better Privacy
THE BEST FREE WAYS TO SEND ENCRYPTED EMAIL AND SECURE MESSAGES
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4 Email Encryption Services To NSA-Proof Your Email
Before Edward Snowden’s revelations about mass surveillance and its impact on privacy most of us didn’t pay much attention to the Government’s watchful eyes. Flash forward to 2014 and there’s been a dramatic shift in how people are taking an active role protecting their online identity, communication and personal data. Enter the world of encryption.
Encrypting your emails isn’t just about scrambling contents so the NSA can’t peep out what you’re sending and receiving. It’s also about keeping yourself safe if a password breach should occur, staving hackers from your account and unwanted ‘someones’ from sifting through your contacts and address book (phishing expedition, anyone?).
Since Snowden’s preferred email encryption service Lavabit was shutdown you might be wondering about alternative email encryption providers. To help in your hunt we’re featuring a few for you to explore.
Email encryption services
Virtru
Virtru is available as a Chrome and Firefox extension that can be used with webmail clients like Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail. If you’re less of a desktop user then take advantage of the Android app (they have an Apple one too), plus plugins for Outlook and Mac Mail programs.
You can encrypt a variety of file type attachments, revoke emails that you didn’t intend to send and communicate with others who may not have the browser add-on installed (they receive through the web-based secure reader). The best part is Virtru is free.
Learn more about how Virtru works.
Riseup
Although Riseup has typically associated with social and political activists it is a solid email encryption service that anyone can use. In fact, its user base has shifted to a whole new populace of average joes and janes that want digital privacy.
Riseup delivers a unique level of privacy and security by stripping any personally identifiable information from the email’s header and logs. It also stores emails on encrypted partitions and utilizes encrypted transmission for communications.
The Riseup team is comprised of volunteers who are concerned with providing secure and surveillance-free services. As a result, they rely on donations and funding from users and supporters. If you like what they’ve built consider pitching in.
Tutanota
Launched in 2012, the German encrypted email provider Tutanota offers 1GB free storage with plans for additional paid storage in the future. Tutanota offers complete data privacy, which means that even they can’t access what users are doing. So, if you lose your password, you lose your password.
Tutanota is easy to use and set-up, ad free, secure and free.
ProtonMail
Squelch your paranoia with a free secure email account from Switzerland-based ProtonMail. Committed to constructing a system that is inaccessible it works by encrypting messages in the user’s browser before it reaches the server. Why does this matter? Because ProtonMail isn’t able to ‘decrypt’ messages if their servers are compromised and that makes them less vulnerable.
Couple the above with the Swiss Federal Act on the Surveillance of Postal and Telecommunications that dictates governments don’t have the authority to demand access to the email system. P.S. ProtonMail is forever free.
Have you used any of the above encryption services? Are there any others that you prefer? Share with us in the comments below.
We have no commercial relationships with any of the vendors discussed in this blog, and disclaim endorsements & responsibility for them & their sites, applications, goods, & services.
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As privacy consciousness has increased, phrases like “zero knowledge” and “end-to-end encryption” have become buzzwords of sorts. Many businesses, products, and online services have sprung up in the wake of Edward Snowden hoping to get a slice of the rapidly expanding market for privacy-enhancing technology. But which ones are all talk and which deliver? Let’s take a look at a few email providers who might fit the bill.
>>Hide Your Tor usage from your ISP – Click here for the best VPN’s<<
ProtonMail
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Which Secure Email Provider Is the One For You?
As privacy consciousness has increased, phrases like “zero knowledge” and “end-to-end encryption” have become buzzwords of sorts. Many businesses, products, and online services have sprung up in the wake of Edward Snowden hoping to get a slice of the rapidly expanding market for privacy-enhancing technology. But which ones are all talk and which deliver? Let’s take a look at a few email providers who might fit the bill.
>>Hide Your Tor usage from your ISP – Click here for the best VPN’s<<
ProtonMail
Started in 2013, ProtonMail specifically cites Edward Snowden as an inspiration for their service. They make a big deal out of two things: the fact that they are based in Switzerland, and their two password system. The gist is that ProtonMail is marketing themselves as the “Swiss bank account” of email providers. Indeed, they say just that on the pagedetailing their security measures: their servers “are colocated in some of the same secured and guarded datacenters used by Switzerland’s famed private banks”. Elsewhere they boast of a “secure datacenter facility hidden inside a Swiss granite mountain” and that this is a “former military command center deep inside the Swiss Alps”.
This all sounds very impressive, but what’s the nitty gritty? The touted two password system works as follows: the first password logs the user into their account. This leads to a page titled “Decrypt mailbox” prompting them to enter a second password. This password unlocks the user’s symmetrically encrypted 2048 bit private RSA key which in turn decrypts their mailbox. The decryption process happens entirely locally in the client’s browser using JavaScript so that there is no room for ProtonMail to intercept the passphrase protecting the secret key. The private key and mailbox are both encrypted using AES-256. It is an implementation of OpenPGP.js.
ProtonMail is still in beta but the user experience is on the whole very smooth and mature. There may be a short wait if you request an account at the moment, as a sudden spike in popularity coinciding with their IndieGoGo campaign maxed out their servers.
In the meantime many exciting features are in the pipeline. While they strive to make the encryption and decryption invisible in the name of usability, optional key management is on its way allowing users to import GPG keys of non-ProtonMail users so that the security can interoperate with other services. Aliases are also coming soon.
If you and a non-ProtonMail user can agree on a passphrase beforehand, you can also exchange end-to-end encrypted messages with people who have no knowledge of cryptography whatsoever. ProtonMail’s code is not yet open source but they have announced plans to release it in the future.
Tutanota
If you’re looking for a service that’s a little more mature than ProtonMail, the German provider Tutanota may be for you. Founded in 2011, theyofficially left beta on the 24th March 2015. Notably, Tutanota does notutilise the popular PGP method for encrypting messages. Instead, theyexplain, theirs is a custom solution using 2048 bit RSA keys and AES-128 created on the compelling grounds that PGP does not encrypt the subject line of emails. If you are wary of using cryptography that’s less tried and tested, some reassurance may be found in the fact that Tutanota, unlike ProtonMail, has already open sourced its code. Tutanota also has apps for iOS and Android, and a plugin for Outlook so that users don’t have to access their accounts using a web browser – all developments that are still on the cards for ProtonMail.
However Tutanota logs users in and decrypts their mailboxes using the same passphrase, which means a little more trust is required if you are to believe the claim that they can’t and won’t access users’ messages. Nonetheless the user experience is just as smooth as ProtonMail’s and Tutanota also allows email exchanges encrypted by passphrase for private correspondence with users of other services.
If you need your account immediately, Tutanota is probably the best choice as there is no longer a waiting period to take advantage of their services. When creating your account you can also choose from a variety of domains: tutanota.de, tutanota.com, tutamail.com, keemail.me, and my personal favourite: tuta.io. Tutanota warns that the account creation process freezes if you use Tor Browser inside Windows, so watch out if that is your intention, but they are working on fixing this.
Lavaboom
Also from Germany is Lavaboom which started in 2013 and might be described as a cross between ProtonMail and Tutanota in that it utilises OpenPGP.js but uses a single password system. The similarly named Lavabit famously shut down rather than hand over its private SSL key to the US government as part of its investigation into Edward Snowden’s leak. Lavaboom, which came about shortly afterwards, is clearly named in its honour.
Lavaboom has opted to use 4096 bit RSA keys – twice the size of ProtonMail’s and Tutanota’s. If a strong key is the most important thing to you, this may be the best choice. When creating your account, you are offered to choose between using “Lavaboom sync”, meaning Lavaboom’s servers store your private keys encrypted or saving your keys to your browser’s cache. The downside of the latter method is that in the event your cache is wiped, you will no longer be able to access your emails unless you have saved a back up of your key and re-upload it when you next log in, so be careful that you don’t lose access to your inbox by destroying your keys.
I did find that Lavaboom’s user experience isn’t quite as mature as Tutanota’s and ProtonMail’s. When creating my account and sometimes when logging in using Tor Browser inside Linux, the loading page freezes at “Initializing OpenPGP.js” requiring me to refresh the page until it works properly. Nonetheless, Lavaboom is still in beta so we can expect quirks like this to be ironed out. I hope that in the course of this, the process of choosing between caching your keys or using Lavaboom sync is made clearer, as it was initially a bit confusing for a provider whose aim is make encryption easy. However it could be appealing if you’re looking for more fine-grained control than ProtonMail and Tutanota can offer.
Honourable Mentions
You may notice that not only do the three providers reviewed here all use JavaScript-based encryption and decryption, but they are also all hosted on the clearweb. Though they are Tor-friendly, you may be looking for providers that host their own Tor-hidden services.
If so, Lelantos is a paid though cheap service on Tor who may interest you. It is a little more advanced than the other three but it offers some impressive features like allowing users to import their own public key so that, if they are sent unencrypted emails, they are encrypted automatically on entering the server. While it is much better if the sender encrypts the message before sending, it is still preferable to no encryption at all. Members are also allowed to register over 100 aliases and create temporary addresses. A lifetime account costs 0.136BTC, or about $32.
Sigaint offers both free and paid versions of their service. Their upgrade page explains the difference between the two plans: a $30 lifetime subscription grants you increased storage, SMTPS/IMAPS/POP3S support, full disk encryption, easier PGP integration, Bitmessage support, and priority customer service.
Ruggedinbox.com is a fully free email provider offering both clearweb access over TLS/SSL and a Tor onion site. If you’d like a privacy-friendly email provider and don’t mind managing your own PGP keys, this is an attractive choice. IMAP, POP3, and SMTP are all free of charge and you can also create temporary accounts with a pre-set expiry date. When logging in to web mail, you can choose between the JS-less SquirrelMail or the more modern RoundCube which requires JS. While free, users are encouraged to donate to their BTC address on their homepage. RuggedInbox also sells VPSes to those who want their own private email servers.
While it may be a nuisance, the best security is always offered by being in control of your own private key. Services that simplify key management often sacrifice a large amount of that control, but for the purpose of emailing people without knowledge of cryptography, the increase in security and privacy is significant when compared to providers like Hotmail or Gmail. Therefore, if all you are looking for is to go about your daily activities with greater privacy, providers like ProtonMail, TutaNota and Lavaboom offer you just that. For extraordinary protection, never trust your key management to a third party.
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The Only Email System The NSA Can't Access
When the NSA surveillance news broke last year it sent shockwaves through CERN, the particle physics laboratory in Switzerland. Andy Yen, a PhD student, took to the Young at CERN Facebook group with a simple message: “I am very concerned about the privacy issue, and I was wondering what I could do about it.”
There was a massive response, and of the 40 or so active in the discussion, six started meeting at CERN’s Restaurant Number 1, pooling their deep knowledge of computing and physics to found ProtonMail, a gmail-like email system which uses end-to-end encryption, making it impossible for outside parties to monitor.
Encrypted emails have actually been around since the 1980s, but they are extremely difficult to use. When Edward Snowden asked a reporter to use an end-to-end encrypted email to share details of the NSA surveillance program the reporter couldn’t get the system to work, says Yen.
“We encrypt the data on the browser before it comes to the server,” he explains. “By the time the data comes to the server it’s already encrypted, so if someone comes to us and says we’d like to read the emails of this person, all we can say is we have the encrypted data but we’re sorry we don’t have the encryption key and we can’t give you the encryption key.”
“We’ve basically separated the message that’s encrypted apart from the key – all the encryption takes place on your computer instead of our servers, so there’s no way for us to see the original message.”
*****************************************************************************Exchange Secure & Encrypted Emails With VaultletSuite
We use email to send close personal secrets, negotiate business transactions and do everything else in between. But most email is sent in plain text and stored in an easily readable format. Encrypted email providers offer more privacy. Your emails will be encrypted in transmission and on the server’s storage, so no one but you and your intended recipients can read them.
Encrypted email providers come in a variety of forms. Some are entirely web-based applications, some are desktop applications and some plug into your existing email account and add a layer of encryption.
Hushmail, which we’ve mentioned in the past, is one of the most widely-known encrypted email providers. With a Hushmail account, your email is stored in encrypted form and decrypted with your password when you log in. Email sent between Hushmail users is encrypted and decrypted automatically. If you’re emailing someone else, you can use a secret question that person must answer to decrypt your email.
Your recipient will get an email with a link they can click. The link takes them to Hushmail’s website.
After clicking the link, they must answer the question to view the encrypted email.
Let’s get this out of the way. In 2007, Hushmail was subject to a court order and turned over emails from three email accounts. How did they do this, if the email is encrypted? They modified their system to capture the specific users’ passwords. In an refreshingly honest interview with Wired’s Threat Level blog, Hushmail CTO Brian Smith said that:
“[Hushmail] is useful for avoiding general Carnivore-type government surveillance, and protecting your data from hackers, but definitely not suitable for protecting your data if you are engaging in illegal activity that could result in a Canadian court order.”
Some people opt for other encrypted email providers over Hushmail because of this, but each of them could also be forced to modify their system and capture your decryption key. The only solution is using Enigmail or a similar program, which is the do-it-yourself alternative. If you did use such a program, many governments could legally compel you to turn over your encryption key, anyway.
VaultletMail, part of the VaultletSuite set of programs, is a desktop program instead of a web app. If both users are using VaultletMail accounts, email messages are fully encrypted in transmission. If you want to email a user using a different email service, you can use VaultletMail’s SpecialDelivery system.
SpecialDelivery allows a receipient to create a secure passphrase, which they can use to decrypt all future emails sent from your VaultletMail account.
VaultletMail offers a lot of control. It can prevent recipients from forwarding, copying, printing or quoting specific emails. It can set an expiration time, after which the message will self-destruct from your recipient’s VaultletMail inbox. You can even send messages from an anonymous email address, providing deniability. We’ve covered VaultletMail and its features extensively in the past.
Enigmail is a free extension for Mozilla Thunderbird – you’ll also find similar plug-ins available for other popular email programs. To use Enigmail, you’ll have to install both the Enigmail extension for Thunderbird and the GNU Privacy Guard software for your operating system.
After you install Enigmail, you’ll find a setup wizard under the new OpenPGP menu in Thunderbird. The wizard will walk you through the setup process, including creating or importing a public and private key pair.
By default, messages are only digitally signed, which lets recipients know the email is actually from you. You’ll have to select the “Encrypt This Message” option under S/MIME in the email-composing window to enable email encryption.
You’ll have to exchange keys with the people you’ll communicate with, so the setup process is a bit complex – this is the traditional way of sending encrypted email. The advantage is that you can use Enigmail with an existing email provider, such as Gmail. You don’t have to set up a new email account. FireGPG, a popular Firefox extension, used to let you do this from your web browser, but it’s no longer being developed and its Gmail support no longer works.
Conclusion
Another option is using a file encryption program and sending encrypted messages and files as email attachments, which your recipient can then decrypt.
While encryption can help protect your privacy, it isn’t a silver bullet that can protect you from the government — even if you’re using an alternative to Hushmail or doing your own encryption with Enigmail. As XKCD once illustrated, encryption is more easily breakable than you think:
Let us know in the comments what email encryption program you use.
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Exchange Secure & Encrypted Emails With VaultletSuite
Last week, as I was working through writing applications for my website, I came across a unique situation that I’d never faced before in my life. One of the applicants was a reporter living and working in a country with a very rigid dictatorship and ironclad control over all Internet traffic in and out of the country. She was willing to provide unique insight into social events going on inside the country, but arranging for the delivery of those stories would be complicated by government monitoring and filtering of Internet traffic.
So I went out in search of some kind of free secure email solution that would at least provide a line of communication that was secure enough so that if anyone wanted to see what we were discussing, they’d at least have to put quite a bit of effort and resources into it. As always, I checked MakeUseOf first. We’ve got great coverage of secure communications, such as Jorge’s article on FireGPG for Gmail, OneTimeMessage for secure and self-destructing emails, and Tina’s useful list of 5 online encryption tools.
All useful, but nothing quite offered the 2-way secure and encrypted line of communication that I needed. After a fair amount of searching, I came across a free app that fit the bill called VaultletSuite.
Set Up A Secure Line Of Communication
A secure two-way connection is a tall order when you’re dealing with a highly-funded military complex that surely has decryption software the likes of which you could only imagine. With that said, that doesn’t mean that it’s a walk in the park to decrypt well-encrypted email correspondence. So setting up a secure way to communicate is well worth the effort.
With VaultletSuite – or VaultletMail, which is the tool within the suite I’ll be focusing on – once you install the software, just click to log in, and then click on the link on the login page to set up a new account. In just two or three “Next” clicks, you’ll find yourself staring at your brand-spanking new, highly secure webmail account.
After clicking the link, they must answer the question to view the encrypted email.
Let’s get this out of the way. In 2007, Hushmail was subject to a court order and turned over emails from three email accounts. How did they do this, if the email is encrypted? They modified their system to capture the specific users’ passwords. In an refreshingly honest interview with Wired’s Threat Level blog, Hushmail CTO Brian Smith said that:
“[Hushmail] is useful for avoiding general Carnivore-type government surveillance, and protecting your data from hackers, but definitely not suitable for protecting your data if you are engaging in illegal activity that could result in a Canadian court order.”
Some people opt for other encrypted email providers over Hushmail because of this, but each of them could also be forced to modify their system and capture your decryption key. The only solution is using Enigmail or a similar program, which is the do-it-yourself alternative. If you did use such a program, many governments could legally compel you to turn over your encryption key, anyway.
VaultletMail, part of the VaultletSuite set of programs, is a desktop program instead of a web app. If both users are using VaultletMail accounts, email messages are fully encrypted in transmission. If you want to email a user using a different email service, you can use VaultletMail’s SpecialDelivery system.
SpecialDelivery allows a receipient to create a secure passphrase, which they can use to decrypt all future emails sent from your VaultletMail account.
VaultletMail offers a lot of control. It can prevent recipients from forwarding, copying, printing or quoting specific emails. It can set an expiration time, after which the message will self-destruct from your recipient’s VaultletMail inbox. You can even send messages from an anonymous email address, providing deniability. We’ve covered VaultletMail and its features extensively in the past.
Enigmail is a free extension for Mozilla Thunderbird – you’ll also find similar plug-ins available for other popular email programs. To use Enigmail, you’ll have to install both the Enigmail extension for Thunderbird and the GNU Privacy Guard software for your operating system.
After you install Enigmail, you’ll find a setup wizard under the new OpenPGP menu in Thunderbird. The wizard will walk you through the setup process, including creating or importing a public and private key pair.
By default, messages are only digitally signed, which lets recipients know the email is actually from you. You’ll have to select the “Encrypt This Message” option under S/MIME in the email-composing window to enable email encryption.
You’ll have to exchange keys with the people you’ll communicate with, so the setup process is a bit complex – this is the traditional way of sending encrypted email. The advantage is that you can use Enigmail with an existing email provider, such as Gmail. You don’t have to set up a new email account. FireGPG, a popular Firefox extension, used to let you do this from your web browser, but it’s no longer being developed and its Gmail support no longer works.
Conclusion
Another option is using a file encryption program and sending encrypted messages and files as email attachments, which your recipient can then decrypt.
While encryption can help protect your privacy, it isn’t a silver bullet that can protect you from the government — even if you’re using an alternative to Hushmail or doing your own encryption with Enigmail. As XKCD once illustrated, encryption is more easily breakable than you think:
Let us know in the comments what email encryption program you use
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5 of the Best Secure Email Services for Better Privacy
When it comes to emails, complete privacy is a big concern for a lot of people, and all the popular email providers such as Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo simply do not offer a completely secure environment to send and receive emails.
However, there are quite a few secure email services that offer email privacy and encryption. We have reviewed and selected five of the best email services that should keep your data safe from hackers and the authorities.
1. ProtonMail
ProtonMail is one of the most highly-regarded apps on this list. Forbes even called it “the only email system NSA can’t access” and with good reason, too. Their servers are located in Switzerland, which means the US government cannot forcibly shut them down or order them to produce information. In any case, the emails are encrypted end-to-end, which means it is impossible to intercept and decipher them. Also, Proton mail does not log IP addresses, so you are truly anonymous by using this service.
Right now they have hit their capacity limit due to high demand, and only people with an invite can sign up for the service. Head over to Protonmail to request an invite (free of charge). Paid accounts are also available with premium features.
2. Tutanota
Tutanota is a completely open-source and free email service which offers end-to-end encryption of emails, including the ability for non-Tutanota users to securely respond to encrypted emails. Once the intended recipient receives your encrypted email, they will not be able to view the subject, attachment or message unless they can produce a password (which the both of you must have agreed upon previously) that will unlock the contents of your message. You can also choose not to encrypt your emails, but that defeats the purpose of using Tutanota.
For free accounts, you get 1 GB of storage and no aliases, but you can upgrade to premium for just €1/month to add up to 5 aliases and map your own domain to Tutanota. Mobile apps are also available for Android and iOS.
3. Posteo.de
Posteo.de is a Berlin-based service which is also held in high regard when it comes to protecting the privacy of its users. Unlike the above two, Posteo.de is not free and comes with plans starting at €1/month for 2 GB storage capacity with POP3 and IMAP support. Importantly, two-factor authentication is available, which prevents access to your account even if your password is compromised. Posteo.de does not request any personal information while signing up and even allows you to pay anonymously using bank transfer, cash or Paypal.
4. Kolab Now
Kolab Now is another open-source email service with its servers completely hosted and managed in Switzerland, just like ProtonMail, so your private data is never crawled. The service targets small and medium-sized enterprises, especially those who want to pass privileged information through email. Just like Posteo.de, Kolab Now makes money by charging its users directly and has two plans starting from around $4.99 for an individual account. Other features include an integrated note-taking app, email tagging support, contacts and calender, shared folders and more.
5. Countermail
Countermail is another top email service provider that offers several unique features. It uses OpenPGP’s encryption protocol with 4096 keys to protect your data and also offers end-to-end encryption. It also offers a secure USB key option that makes it impossible to access your account without your USB key inserted into a USB port. Countermail supports Linux, Mac OS X and Windows and also has IMAP support in case you want to use your own email client. You can try Countermail free of charge for a week, after which prices start at $6.33/month.
Conclusion
If you need a very high level of privacy in your email, all the above services have good reputations when it comes to protecting your data. Tutanota, Countermail and Protonmail offer free options, so that may be a good place to start if you want to compare each service before picking the one that works best for you.
https://lockbin.com/AccountEx/SelectAccountType
https://www.neomailbox.com/services/secure-email
https://www.sendinc.com/
https://www.virtru.com/
https://www.infoencrypt.com/
Online encryption, using best encryption algorithms, works in browser
https://lockbin.com/AccountEx/SelectAccountType
https://www.neomailbox.com/services/secure-email
https://www.sendinc.com/
https://www.virtru.com/
https://www.infoencrypt.com/
Online encryption, using best encryption algorithms, works in browser
https://www.sendinc.com/
The simple way to send a secure email. It's safe. It's fast. It's free.
http://www.mxcsoft.com/
http://www.sbwave.com/enkryptor/encrypt.html
http://www.safe-mail.net/
http://www.mobrien.com/encrypted_mail.shtml
https://www.enigmail.net/index.php/en/
https://www.comodo.com/home/email-security/free-email-certificate.php
http://www.bytefusion.com/products/ens/cryptoanywhere/whatiscryptoanywhere.htm
http://www.rmail.com/
http://www.opolis.eu/
https://www.mailvelope.com/
http://free.antivirus.com/us/email-encryption-service/index.html
http://www.secureaction.com/encryption_free/
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/freeware/
http://www.nchsoftware.com/encrypt/index.html
http://www.encryptfiles.net/
https://www.threadthat.com/default.aspx .
https://burnnote.com/
https://quickforget.com/ .
https://privnote.com/ https://www.safemess.com/ .
http://oneshar.es/ .
https://www.steganos.com/en/ http://www.myportablesoftware.com/freefilecamouflage.aspx#
http://truecrypt.sourceforge.net/
http://www.safehousesoftware.com/SafeHouseExplorer.aspx
https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools.aspx
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The user-based encryption we’re talking about is far more robust, since it encrypts your messages even from the person who’s supposed to receive it, if they’re not prepared to open them. It doesn’t give Google or anybody else the option of encrypting or not — you’re the one doing the scrambling, so only you and your chosen recipient(s) can decide if you both feel like doing any unscrambling. If you receive a user-encrypted message in your Gmail account, Google can only ever read the garbled version, because that’s all the company ever actually received. It nullifies the trust element of security for everybody except for yourself and your recipient.
First, here’s how computer encryption works in basic sense. In crypto, there is a problem called key distribution: it’s easy enough to lock a file, but for an intended recipient to be able unlock it and read it, you have to get them a copy of the mathematical key — and if you could distribute things like that safely, you could just use that key-distribution method to send the message itself, and keys wouldn’t be needed at all. The eventual solution was to use a so-called public-private key combo, in which one user can lock a file with a publicly listed key unique to a particular recipient, but then only a corresponding secret key held by the recipient can open it.
The GPGTools Suite is probably the most streamlined option. It uses a version of the Mac keychain called GPGKeychain to generate and manage any keys you make or encounter. When you make a new key-pair for your own use, or enter someone else’s public key so you can send them messages, GPGKeychain manages this information. This is the center of your security world from now on; someone with access to this program could get at your private keys, reading all encrypted mail just as easily as you do. Make sure you have a screen lock on any system with this program installed.
Now, actually making use of these public/private keys to send or receive emails takes another program from the GPG Tools Suite: GPG for Mail. If you receive an encrypted message without this installed, even one correctly encrypted with your public key, it will appear as gibberish. By installing GPG for Mail, you teach the Mail app to put those keys to use both encrypting and decrypting messages. This means that if you were to lose or break the system with the properly patched Mail client on it, you’d have to reinstall GPGTools to read your own encrypted messages — even those you’ve already opened and read in the past.
*****************************************************************************http://www.bytefusion.com/products/ens/cryptoanywhere/whatiscryptoanywhere.htm
http://www.rmail.com/
http://www.opolis.eu/
https://www.mailvelope.com/
http://free.antivirus.com/us/email-encryption-service/index.html
http://www.secureaction.com/encryption_free/
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/freeware/
http://www.nchsoftware.com/encrypt/index.html
http://www.encryptfiles.net/
https://www.threadthat.com/default.aspx .
https://burnnote.com/
https://quickforget.com/ .
https://privnote.com/ https://www.safemess.com/ .
http://oneshar.es/ .
https://www.steganos.com/en/ http://www.myportablesoftware.com/freefilecamouflage.aspx#
http://truecrypt.sourceforge.net/
http://www.safehousesoftware.com/SafeHouseExplorer.aspx
https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools.aspx
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How to send and receive encrypted email for free
So you want to send an encrypted email. You criminal, you.
First, it’s necessary to make a few basic points. Programs like Outlook and services like Gmail will talk about offering “encrypted” email to their users, and they certainly do, but that’s not what we’re talking about. Their encryption keeps your data safe while it’s traveling through the various lines on its way from one user to another — very important. This can (often) stop eavesdroppers with access to the physical lines of communication from abusing that access to read the bits going through them. If that’s what you want (and it’s not a bad idea at all), that’s as easy as changing a settings option.
There are also a number of far more secure email services that offer aggressive end-to-end encryption methods. Those are a big step up in security, but as the saga of Lavabit showed, leaving your emails on servers owned by real humans means that those real humans might be compelled to take measures that will reveal your information. A good rundown of encrypted email services can be found here, though they almost always come with a monthly fee and sometimes only accept payment in cryptocurrency like BitCoin. The most secure I’m aware of at the moment is probably the Lelantos Project, but this space is changing virtually week to week.
The user-based encryption we’re talking about is far more robust, since it encrypts your messages even from the person who’s supposed to receive it, if they’re not prepared to open them. It doesn’t give Google or anybody else the option of encrypting or not — you’re the one doing the scrambling, so only you and your chosen recipient(s) can decide if you both feel like doing any unscrambling. If you receive a user-encrypted message in your Gmail account, Google can only ever read the garbled version, because that’s all the company ever actually received. It nullifies the trust element of security for everybody except for yourself and your recipient.
As a result, it’s significantly more bothersome to set up and use. Encryption isn’t perfect by any means, but with a good understanding of secure email transmission, you can make sure that nobody without significant time and resources can eavesdrop on you — and how many of us are, realistically, worth government-level effort?
First, here’s how computer encryption works in basic sense. In crypto, there is a problem called key distribution: it’s easy enough to lock a file, but for an intended recipient to be able unlock it and read it, you have to get them a copy of the mathematical key — and if you could distribute things like that safely, you could just use that key-distribution method to send the message itself, and keys wouldn’t be needed at all. The eventual solution was to use a so-called public-private key combo, in which one user can lock a file with a publicly listed key unique to a particular recipient, but then only a corresponding secret key held by the recipient can open it.
It’s a fairly simple idea that was held back for years by the sheer difficulty of coming up with a mathematical operation that could do this — lock with one key, then unlock with another. When such a method was first discovered, it was called RSA. RSA didn’t really come into its own until it was put into practice by a guy named Phil Zimmerman in 1991, with the release of a user-friendly software suite called Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP.
There are a number of similar solutions include, but not limited to, PGP, OpenPGP, and GNU Privacy Guard, often called GPG.
We’ll need to do three things to get started: install the system itself, generate a public-private key pair, and publish our public key somewhere that people can find it. There are some browser extensions that will automate some of this process — but frankly, if you’re willing to give away control of that much to unknown parties, you can probably just get by with a paid encrypted email service anyway. We’re trying to do it ourselves, here.
GPG makes things very simple. If you’re using a Windows PC, you might want to tryGPG4Win, on Mac GPGTools. The procedures for getting started with these systems are broadly similar, with only slightly different program names and on-screen prompts.
The GPGTools Suite is probably the most streamlined option. It uses a version of the Mac keychain called GPGKeychain to generate and manage any keys you make or encounter. When you make a new key-pair for your own use, or enter someone else’s public key so you can send them messages, GPGKeychain manages this information. This is the center of your security world from now on; someone with access to this program could get at your private keys, reading all encrypted mail just as easily as you do. Make sure you have a screen lock on any system with this program installed.
Creating a new key-pair is as easy as clicking “New,” and following the instructions. This is where you decide on what level of encryption you want (the default is almost always fine), as well as what actual email address will receive the encrypted messages and the alias that will be displayed. You can use your real name if you’d like (I do) but you don’t have to if you’d like to remain anonymous. Once you click create, you’ll have access to a public key for you to copy and host somewhere on the Internet.
The easiest way to do this is probably to right-click and Export the key in question as a text file. Open it up and copy-paste the full key (header/footer and all) into the submit box on this website. MIT hosts public encryption keys for anyone, for free — they’re not the only ones doing it, but they’re the most reliable. If you don’t want to trust MIT to keep the servers up indefinitely, try hosting it on your own personal webspace. You’ll have to publish the link somewhere, so people can actually find it to message you — Twitter bios are popular places to host links to public keys.
Now, actually making use of these public/private keys to send or receive emails takes another program from the GPG Tools Suite: GPG for Mail. If you receive an encrypted message without this installed, even one correctly encrypted with your public key, it will appear as gibberish. By installing GPG for Mail, you teach the Mail app to put those keys to use both encrypting and decrypting messages. This means that if you were to lose or break the system with the properly patched Mail client on it, you’d have to reinstall GPGTools to read your own encrypted messages — even those you’ve already opened and read in the past.
GPG4Win works much the same way, with its own key-managers and plugins for Outlook. Linux has by far the broadest set of encryption tools available, but they also tend to be the most complex.
In the end, real user-based encryption is still fairly opaque to most users. On the other hand, a well-designed personal encryption regimen is the best communications protection it’s possible to have right now, and unlike professional encrypted email services it doesn’t cost a thing to operate. You’ll need to do just a bit of DIY work to get it running, but honestly not all that much.
Now all you need is a real reason to be so secretive.
THE BEST FREE WAYS TO SEND ENCRYPTED EMAIL AND SECURE MESSAGES
Do you need to send someone sensitive information through email? Regular email is sent “in the clear” and therefore is subject to interception by hackers. However, there are many options for sending private, sensitive information securely through email.
We have collected some links to sites providing solutions for sending secure email, secure one-time messages, and secure instant messaging, and encrypting files to send through email.
Infoencrypt
Infoencrypt is a free, web-based service for easily securing your messages. Simply enter the text of your message and the encryption password that will be used for both encryption and decryption. The program encrypts your message using a strong encryption algorithm, making it secure to send. Anyone who intercepts the encrypted message without the password will not be able to read the original message.
Infoencrypt does not require installation on your PC.
SafeGmail
SafeGmail is a free extension for Google Chrome that allows you to send encrypted emails to anyone. The messages are encrypted and decrypted within the browser and remain encrypted in both the sender’s and receiver’s email inboxes. The messages also automatically expire after a random amount of time.
SafeGmail works with any recipient email provider. For more information about using SafeGmail [discontinued], see our article.
RMail
RMail allows you to easily send emails with end-to-end security and compliance. Send encrypted email from your current email address (10 free messages allowed per month) and automatically receive a Registered Receipt™ record proving encrypted delivery and compliance with open tracking.
Sendinc
Sendinc is a web-based service that makes it safe and simple to transmit sensitive information via email. You and your recipients can use Sendinc for free. No software is required.
Sendinc secures your message by ensuring that your data remains encrypted from the time it leaves your computer through the time your recipients retrieve it. At no point in the process is your message data transmitted or stored in an unencrypted format. Sendinc further ensures the safety of your messages by verifying your recipients are in fact your intended recipients.
Messages are encrypted with a powerful randomly-generated encryption key that is emailed to your recipients in the form of a link. Sendinc does not save a copy of your recipients’ encryption keys and your message can not be decrypted without the key – not even by Sendinc. This means only your recipients can decode the message data.
Hushmail
Hushmail is a secure web-based free email service that looks and feels just like any other web-mail site, but adds strong encryption to your emails to protect your secrets from prying eyes. It uses standards-compliant encryption and provides mobile access (Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, etc.).
Paid plans are also available that provide additional storage, unlimited email aliases, dedicated technical support, and desktop access.
Lockbin
Lockbin is a free web application for sending private email messages and files. Lockbin ends message persistence, which means your email message will not be backed up on email servers or stored in backup files. Network sniffers can also spy on your email traffic while in transit. Use Lockbin to obscure the content of your message and avoid these hazards to your privacy.
No registration is required to use Lockbin. Your message and file attachments are protected by strong AES-256 bit encryption and your secret password. You invent the password and deliver it to the recipient using a different secure method, not email.
The free plan allows one user to send secure messages with secure file attachments up to 15MB. Files are stored for up to one month. You can also download free Lockbin Java desktop software and a free Microsoft Outlook add-in for sending and receiving Lockbin messages. There are also paid plans providing more features and allowing for larger limits on file attachments and for more users
iSafeguard
iSafeguard is a software package that provides easy-to-use and highly secure encryption and digital signature solutions for everyone from big companies to individual users. The software allows you to sign and encrypt files, folders, and emails and verify digital signatures and countersignatures. It provides a secure text editor and allows you to wipe files, folders, and free disk space. It also integrates with the Windows shell.
The freeware edition of their software is for non-business, individual users. Although it lacks some of the features the enterprise and professional editions have it does provide powerful encryption and digital signatures capabilities, and security is as strong as the enterprise and professional editions.
All editions support using certificates from any Certificate Authorities, and handle certificate status checking automatically.
Sbwave Enkryptor
Sbwave Enkryptor is a free service that encrypts text messages for email delivery. The encrypted email is entered and sent via a web form. The recipient receives the encrypted message in a similar form, then simply enters the encryption code you chose and the message is decrypted.
There is no software to install, nothing to sign up for, and no ads attached to the messages. The service requires an encryption code that both you and the recipient know and a mail client that understands HTML such as Outlook Express, Netscape Messenger, Hotmail, NetZero, Lycos or any number of free email systems.
Safe-mail.net
Safe-mail is a highly secure communication, storage, sharing and distribution system for the Internet. It provides email, instant messaging, data distribution, data storage, and file sharing tools in a suite of applications that enables businesses and individuals to communicate and store data with privacy and confidence. Every application is secured by state-of-the-art encryption ensuring the highest level protection and privacy to users. Within the overall system as with each application, security is not an add-on feature but has been designed into the fundamental architecture of the system.
The system is available at any time and from any location using any device or operating system, be it PC or Macintosh, Windows or Unix, Sun or i-mode enabled wireless device.
Safe-mail’s free service contains ALL the functionality of the Safe-mail system but is limited to 3Mb of storage space, less names in the address book, less folders, filters, smaller mail quota and reduced frequency of backup. To increase access to these resources, they offer a range ofPremium Services.
There are no advertisements, downloads or cookies. Safe-mail supports most hardware platforms and any operating system. Includes file storage, spam filters and anti virus protection. Full compatibility with most browsers, email clients and all relevant protocols including POP, SMTP, IMAP, S/MIME and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).
Enigmail
Enigmail is a security extension to Mozilla Thunderbird and Seamonkey. It enables you to write and receive email messages signed and/or encrypted with the OpenPGP standard. Enigmail can also be used with Eudora OSE and Postbox (using a Postbox extension).
Enigmail is an email plugin. It cannot be run by itself. You need to use one of the supported email clients, the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG), and a little patience. You may also need to install the proper Enigmail language pack.
Comodo Free Secure Email Certificate
Comodo Free Secure Email Certificate allows you to protect your digital communications. The digital signature ensures confidentiality and provides secure message encryption with up to 256-bit security. The Comodo Free Secure Email Certificate is free for personal use, integrates with Microsoft® Office and major applications, and is trusted by popular email clients.
Email certificates provide the strongest levels of confidentiality and security for your electronic communications by allowing you to digitally sign and encrypt your mail and attachments. Encryption means that only your intended recipient will be able to read the mail while digitally signing allows them to confirm you as the sender and verify the message was not tampered with en route. Comodo’s email certificates are free for personal/home users and are available from as little as $12 per year for business users.
Mobrien.com
Mobrien.com offers a free encrypted email service that transmit your email text message in an encrypted form so that it cannot be parsed for key words while en route. What happens once it is stored on the receiver’s computer is up to them and the protective security measures they have enabled.
Your e-mail remains encrypted from the time it is sent and until it is received and decrypted by the intended recipient. The recipient automatically receives instructions for decrypting messages. No unencrypted message is transmitted across the internet.
Between transmissions, when your e-mail is stored on mail servers, the message remains encrypted and the content cannot be “sniffed” for specific key words, which is the manner in which email “eavesdroppers” select the emails they want to read.
Using Mobrien.com’s encrypted email service, there is no need to exchange passwords or complex public key details with encrypted email recipients. The recipients are automatically sent instructions for deciphering the encrypted email. Sending an encrypted email message using Mobrien.com is as simple as sending an ordinary email with a web client. Other email encryption methods require the sender and receiver to exchange public keys which is complicated, inconvenient, and not very practical when spontaneously sending encoded email messages.
SafeMess
SafeMess allows you to encrypt any message text in a few seconds. After the encryption is done, your message will appear unreadable to the human eye. Then you can send your message to a friend or save it to a file for later use. Your friend will only be able to read the message if he or she enters the secret password that you have chosen.
SafeMess can be used on any message and is suitable when the communication is done via an unsecured channel (like mail, IM, chat, etc.) or when you want to hide information from robots or filters.
The encryption script always runs locally in the browser on your computer. Therefore, your secret password and message will never be sent over the Internet to the SafeMess server.
Currently, you cannot encrypt more than 32 kilobytes of data (that is more than 10 printed pages of text) using SafeMess. All character sets are supported, including US, European, Cyrillic, Chinese and Japanese as long as the browser has support for UTF-8 encoding.
You can use SafeMess in any modern web browser with JavaScript enabled. They have successfully tested it in Internet Explorer 6+, Firefox 2+, Chrome 2+, Safari 3+ , Opera 9+ and Opera Mini. You should also be able to use SafeMess on advanced phones and PDAs, such as iPhone and Android devices. However, it does not work with older Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones.
Crypto Anywhere
Crypto Anywhere is a program that is small enough to fit on a USB flash drive, providing free secure email on the go. Don’t have a computer yourself but want to protect your web based e-mail at your local internet cafe? Crypto Anywhere is for you. If you run Crypto Anywhere from a USB flash drive, you can encrypt your email without even installing software on your workstation. With Crypto Anywhere you can send and receive secure email to and from anyone with an email account – the recipients do not have to have Crypto Anywhere themselves.
Crypto Anywhere is free for personal and corporate use.
Opolis Secure Email Service
Opolis is a high-security email service. Combining the latest E-Mail security technologies, Opolis transmits, processes and stores all your confidential messages in encrypted mode. Accessible from all over the world, Opolis operates on your PC in parallel to standard email applications, such as Microsoft’s Outlook or Apple’s Mail. The Opolis Mail Client runs on any machine and does not require any specific configuration.
Opolis is a fully integrated service provider for all your confidential emails, combining a global infrastructure, server systems, backup facilities, storage and customer service.
Mailvelope
Mailvelope is an easy-to-use Chrome extension that offers free, OpenPGP encryption for the most popular webmail services. It comes preconfigured for major webmail providers (Gmail/Google Apps, Outlook, Yahoo! and GMX) and integrates directly into the webmail user interface. It can also be configured to support other webmail services.
A Firefox version of Mailvelope is currently in development. An early preview can be found in the GitHub repository.
Trend Micro Email Encryption Client
Trend Micro Email Encryption Client is a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook that enables secure, confidential and private email communications between you and any of your Outlook contacts.
Since regular email is transmitted “in the clear,” it is vulnerable to interception and eavesdropping on the internet and by online email providers such as Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail. Safe, secure, and free for non-commercial use, Trend Micro Email Encryption Client ensures that no one except you and your recipients can read your encrypted email messages and attachments.
Simply click the “Send Private” button from Outlook to encrypt your email message and any attachments with 256-bit AES, the same encryption standard approved for used by US government agencies.
Crypt4Free
Crypt4Free is a free program that allows you to encrypt every kind of file on every kind of medium, whether floppy disk, removable hard drive, zip drive, tape drive or other, using the proven encryption algorithm, DESX. It offers full .zip support, providing the ability to browse for existing .zip archives, extract their contents, and even create new .zip archives.
The program also allows you to send encrypted files and messages via the internet and to encrypt email text (or any other text message) to send it securely via e-mail, chat, or instant messengers like ICQ, AOL Messenger, Microsoft Messenger, etc. The recipient must enter the password to read this message.
Crypt4Free provides a user privacy tool that removes all internet traces, such as URL history, typed URLs, Favorites, Recycle Bin, typed passwords in web forms, etc. There is also a built-in file shredder that allows you to wipe the contents of the original, pre-encrypted file.
The company that offers Crypt4Free, SecureAction, also sells a program called Advanced Encryption Package Professional for $49.95. The program offers features not available in the freeware version, such as creation of self-extracting archives, integration with Windows Explorer, complete command line support, RSA algorithm support, and 17 additional encryption algorithms and 19 additional secure files erasure algorithms.
dsCrypt
dsCrypt is an AES/Rijndael file encryption program with a simple, multi-file, drag-and-drop interface. It features optimal implementation, performance and safety measures. dsCrypt uses an advanced encryption algorithm and offers unique options for enhanced security. It is available as a small, self-contained, and dependency-free file you can run on your PC or on a USB flash drive.
Files you encrypt are converted into encrypted .dsc files. If you use dsCrypt to send a private message to someone via email, the recipient simply has to drag and drop a .dsc file onto the dsCrypt program window, type the correct password, and the file will be decrypted and made usable again.
MEO
MEO is file encryption software for Windows or Mac or Windows that allow you to encrypt and decrypt files of any type. Protect sensitive data against unauthorized viewers with the latest data encryption technologies to keep your documents safe and secure.
Use MEO to easily send encrypted emails, or create self-extracting encrypted files so the receiver can open the encrypted files on any Windows or Mac computer without needing to install the encryption software on their machine. MEO also provides context menu integration so you can encrypt files outside of the MEO program.
The free version is available for non-commercial use.
Encrypt Files
Encrypt Files is a free, lightweight but powerful program that allows you to encrypt your files and folders and password protect them. It supports 13 encryption methods. You have the option to shred the original files after encryption or to make the files hidden after encryption. The software must be installed on both the sender’s and recipient’s computers. When you encrypt a file, a new copy of the file is created that is encrypted, leaving the original file alone. You can then choose leave, delete, or shred the original file.
ThreadThat
ThreadThat is a free web-based service that allows you to easily conduct online, bi-directional, passkey-protected, anonymous communication using secure threads in your own private, encrypted message center. A secure thread is a series of exchanges between two or more individuals arranged in one convenient continuous conversation that can be accessed with a single mouse click. There is no limit to the number of messages or files on a Thread and no limitation on the length of time the conversation spans. All messages and files are encrypted while in-transit and while at-rest and can only be accessed by other invited ThreadThat users. Threads only exist on ThreadThat servers, never on an end-user computing device.
ThreadThat does not require that you download and install any software and there is no advertising, games, SPAM, or malware.
Burn Note
Burn Note is a free web application that allows you to have private conversations online. Enter a note and protect it with a password. When you click Send, a link is generated. Send the link and communicate the password to the recipient. Once they have read the note, or the specified time period has passed, the note self destructs. The recipient can securely reply to your note.
Every message on Burn Note is automatically deleted and uses patent-pending technology to prevent copying. Deleted Burn Notes are completely erased from the Burn Note servers after a certain amount of time you specify, so it is impossible for anyone to retrieve them.
QuickForget.com
QuickForget.com is a free, web-based service that allows you to share secret messages that self destruct after a set amount of time. Enter a message and get a link you can share with the recipient of your message. You can set the number of views allowed and also the amount of time before the message self-destructs. Once a message is deleted, it is gone forever. If you try to access to access the message after it is deleted, a message displays, saying, “Sorry, I’ve already forgotten the secret.”
Privnote
Privnote is a free service that allows you to send private message that self-destruct after being read once. You do not need to register or create a password. You simply write your note, click the red button to create a link, and then send that link to the desired recipient. When the person accesses that link, they will see the note in their browser, and the note automatically self-destructs. No one, not even the same person who viewed the note, can access the note again.
There is no time limit by which the link must be viewed or it will be self-destructed. The one feature Privnote has that OneShar.es does not is a check box that allows you to receive notification when the message has been read.
OneShar.es
OneShar.es is a free service that allows you to share confidential information with others that you don’t want to send through email or post on instant messaging services. The information shared is encrypted from you to OneShar.es and stored encrypted. OneShar.es cannot read your information. It is assigned a unique URL that you can share. The provided URL can only be accessed once. Once someone visits the URL you send them, the information is unlocked so they can view it, and then the message is deleted. You can specify minutes, hours, or days by which the message will be self-destructed if not viewed. The maximum amount of time is 3 days.
OneShar.es does not require a password or registration and can also be used on Android and iOS devices.
How-To Geek previously showed you how to use OneShar.es to send self-destructing sensitive information to someone.
Steganos LockNote
Steganos LockNote is a small, simple program that allows you to store private text in filessecurely. For example, if you purchase a download-only program, you can use LockNote to store the product key or serial number that goes with that program in the same folder, so you always know where to find it. The program works like Windows Notepad, but when you save the file, you’ll be prompted for a password.
In addition to using LockNote to store personal, private data, you can use LockNote to send someone a private message. Enter your message in LockNote, password-protect the message, and then send the LockNote file to your recipient via email. When your recipient opens the LockNote file on their PC, all they have to do is enter the password and they can read your message.
You can also add protection to the file by putting it in a secure, encrypted vault using an encryption program. We list some options for that later in this article.
For more information about using LockNote, see our article.
Free File Camouflage
Free File Camouflage is a free program that allows you to hide your files inside a jpeg image. The software can be used with the main interface or via the Windows Explorer “send to” context menu (the first time you only need to select a directory with some images).
All the files are encrypted using AES and hidden inside an image. If someone tried to open your camouflaged image, all they see is the image.
If you use this method to send someone a private text message in a file hidden inside an image, the recipient must use Free File Camouflage to de-camouflage the file. If sending the camouflaged image through email, we recommend that you add a password when encrypting the file into an image.
For more information about using Free File Camouflage, see our article.
The remaining two options for securing data allow you to create encrypted file vaults in which you can store private files. As long as your recipient knows the password required to open the vault, you can use this method to send private information to people via email. Simply attach the encrypted vault file to an email message.
TrueCrypt
If you are looking for a simple and powerful way to encrypt everything from system drives to backup discs to everything in between, TrueCrypt is a free, open-source tool that will help you lock up your files. It is an on-the-fly encryption application that allows you to work with encrypted files as you would work on files located on a regular drive. TrueCrypt allows you to create a virtual, encrypted disk within a file and mounts it like a real hard drive. Encryption in TrueCrypt is automatic and transparent, as well as real-time.
Once you have created your virtual, encrypted disk in a file, you can email that file. The recipient needs to have the TrueCrypt software installed and the password used to protect the file.
For more information, see our guides on getting started with TrueCrypt and hiding your data in a TrueCrypt hidden volume.
SafeHouse Explorer
SafeHouse Explorer is a free, portable encryption program available to everyone as a free download in order to promote data privacy and to help you to protect your confidential files. It makes your secret files invisible and hides them from snoopers, intruders and anyone else who doesn’t have your permission to view them. Use SafeHouse Explorer to create private storage vaults to store sensitive files. These vaults can be as large as 2GB each.
SafeHouse Explorer uses passwords and maximum-strength 256-bit Twofish advanced encryption to protect your storage vaults, completely hiding and defending your sensitive files, including photos, videos, spreadsheets, databases and just about any other kind of file that you might have. The program can protect files residing on any drive, including memory sticks, external USB drives, network servers, CD/DVDs, and even iPods. SafeHouse Explorer is easy to use, providing a Windows Explorer-like drag-and-drop interface.
If you use SafeHouse Explorer to send someone private information via email, your recipient can access the SafeHouse storage vault using the free SafeHouse Explorer program. However, you can also create a self-extracting .exe encrypted storage vault that your recipient can simply run to open and access the files within the vault. Creating a self-extracting .exe file automatically includes the SafeHouse Explorer program in the storage vault file. When you run the file and enter the password, SafeHouse Explorer starts and the storage vault is automatically opened.
SafeHouse Explorer is a full featured program and will never expire.
Sophos Free Encryption
Sophos Free Encryption is a program that allows you to send encrypted data by creating password-protected archives you can send using most email programs. When you encrypt your data, the files are automatically compressed and the archives are automatically added to new email messages. Encrypted files can be self-extracting so recipients don’t need special software to open the file; all they will need is the password.
If you have discovered other useful methods of sending sensitive information through email, let us know in the comments.
http://www.howtogeek.com/135638/the-best-free-ways-to-send-encrypted-email-and-secure-messages/
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