Open source email encryption tools

Imagine this scenario: Your company has a relatively stable cybersecurity setup in place. You carefully monitor all incoming and outgoing messages to ensure that everyone is following safety procedures. They intend to rifle through its contents for key login or other biographical information for theft, fraud, or ransom purposes. While encryption is an extremely complex field within cybersecurity , it breaks down into two relatively straightforward categories, each with its own pros and cons: Transport level encryption — This system entails encryption of email contents when they are in transit between a sender and a receiver.

End to end encryption — This system instead encrypts a message when in possession of the sender, then decrypts it when in possession of its recipient s. End to end typically involves a more complicated implementation and is more expensive, but you are generally paying for more robust email security.

Using similar but distinct methods: SPF — Also known as Sender Policy Framework, uses IP addresses to confirm that a sender or recipient is authorized by the administration to access email.

DKIM — Also known as DomainKeys Identified Mail, instead uses particular digital signatures found in the contents of an email to confirm the identity of its sender. Authorities can create their own authentication policies incorporating elements of each. Schedule a Free Consultation. You may also like.

Email Security Services: What to Look for in October 9, October 21, June 16, September 5, October 15, December 11, Leave a Comment Cancel Reply Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. However, that's not an option for those of us without those skills and that knowledge.

So, what can we do to keep out emails private? Turn to secure, open source email services like the two I cover in this article. ProtonMail boasts that it keeps your email messages "encrypted at all times.

The only time a message isn't encrypted is when it lands in a recipient's inbox. The service uses several levels of security. When you set up a ProtonMail account, you're encouraged to create two passwords: a login password and a password to decrypt your mailbox.

The mailbox password is optional, but if you want an extra layer of security you should set it. You can add even more security to your account using two-factor authentication. Sending a message to another ProtonMail user automatically encrypts it. When you a message to someone who doesn't use ProtonMail, you can choose to encrypt it.

When you do that, you add a password to the message. The recipient gets a link to the message, and enters the password that you set. From there, they can read and reply to the message.

Caption: Composing an email in ProtonMail. You can also set messages to self-destruct after a number of hours, days, or weeks into the future. To do that, you'll also need to set a decryption password for the message.

Once the message expires, it becomes digital dust never to be seen again. ProtonMail is quite easy to use, and its web interface is clean though kind of traditional. Tutanota takes a similar approach to protecting your emails.

Your inbox is encrypted, and you have the option to either encrypt the message or not. In case you're wondering, messages are end-to-end encrypted if you're sending to someone with a Tutonota email address. If you do choose to encrypt the message and why wouldn't you?

You'll need to securely share that password with them—perhaps via text message, a letter, or a phone call. Getting ready to encrypt an email in Tutanota. An email containing the link to the encrypted message lands in the recipient's inbox. They click the link, enter the password, and can read and reply to the message. That all sounds a bit cumbersome, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Other than that, Tutanota has a very minimal interface and is easy to use. You can also upgrade to a premium account for 12 euros a year. VeraCrypt is another free open source encryption software for Windows. Through this software, you can encrypt an entire partition of a disk or the whole disk or storage devices like USB flash drive or hard drive. Before the encryption process, you need to specify one algorithm and hash code that you want to use for the drive encryption.

This software is optimized according to modern processors that allow this software to use the hardware acceleration to reduce the encryption time. By using the right password and decryption option, you can easily be able to decrypt the encrypted drive back to the original state. However, you can also use it as an open-source encryption software because it also has a dedicated Encryption Section.

The main advantage of this software is that it automatically integrates with system explorer to provide quick compression and encryption features. Similar to other encryption software, it uses Algorithm and Password protection to encrypt files and folders. It uses AES algorithm to encrypt the data. The process of encrypting a file is quite simple.

First, select the file or folder that you want to encrypt. In this menu, you can view an Encryption Section from where you can easily encrypt the selected file or folder by providing the password and pressing the OK button. Besides normal file encryption, you can also encrypt the name of the files by enabling the Encrypt Filename option. Kleopatra is yet another free open source encryption software for Windows.

Through this software, you can encrypt and decrypt all types of files , folders , media files , etc. In order to start file encryption, you first need to create a new key pair. After that, press next and create a passphrase to protect your new pair key. Now, you can start encrypting the files. This software also integrates itself with the Windows Explorer that gives another option to encrypt files. To use this option, first, select a file and then select sign and encrypt option from the right-click menu.

Remember to sign in from the same account that you had used for the encryption. Besides encryption and decryption features, this software also contains features like Export secret key , Change Expiry to set the expiry date for your account , Create Checksum Files , etc.

AxCrypt is the next free open source encryption software for Windows. Using it, you can encrypt files , folders , media audio, video, images, etc.

To ensure the security of data, it uses the highly secured AES algorithm. Like other encryption software, it also lets you password protect your encrypted files so that only authorized person can decrypt the data. When you launch this software, the first thing it will ask you to enter your email address. On the registered email address, you will receive a verification code using which you can setup the encryption password.