People are using these webmail services more and more, but they are not aware of the dangers. It is necessary to be careful with emails that can put your personal information at risk. Here, you will find some tips to help you protect your data while you perform everyday activities on your computer.
Solutions
Thunderbird is a great program, as is Outlook, the standard mail client for many companies. However, private users often only use webmail services such as Gmail, GMX, and many other similar services. Of course, these can also be accessed via a client, but many users feel it is unnecessary to install and configure client programs. Good news: you can also add E2EE protection to webmail services with the Mailvelope browser add-on.
Setup is simple: install the add-on in your browser and click on the new Mailvelope icon. To encrypt, you need to create an asymmetric key pair, which the add-on will do in a few seconds after entering your name, email address, and password. If such a key pair already exists, you can import it here. The rest is no more complicated: we receive our first encrypted message, which we open and click on the confirmation link – that’s all. Our public key is sent to the key server, and the private key stays with us.
To send an encrypted letter, open the web mailer, where the new Mailvelope icon will launch the add-on’s editor (we usually need to give the add-on permission to access it the first time). Write the letter as we would otherwise. If the recipients’ public keys are on Mailvelope’s key servers, their addresses will be displayed in green. If not, we have to import their keys. Sending an encrypted email is not the most convenient and straightforward – we are usually better off using an E2EE messenger.
Did you know?
Did you know that your email is readable by anyone with access to it? This includes email providers themselves, who are legally obligated to hand over your data if requested by the government.
Conclusion
One of the most fundamental and common ways to protect your email is by encrypting it. Anyone who intercepts your message will not be able to read it. However, it should be noted that encryption does not protect against someone with physical access to your device.