You are interested in learning how to encrypt email using different emailing services such as Outlook, Gmail, and others. If so, look no further as here we explore different options for sending encrypted emails with different email services out there. Before we get there, let’s examine what is an encrypted email in the first place, how it works, and finally how such messages protect your private, confidential data and boost your online and data privacy and security.
When you want to add an extra layer of protection to your personal messages with or without files attached, you encrypt them. So, how to encrypt email? To make it easier for you, there are many different options out there available to anyone for encrypting email messages and they work very similarly as they use the same end-to-end encryption technology. When you encrypt an email, your email message is converted from its easily readable text form into unreadable, scrambled data that cannot be viewed by anyone except you the sender, and the intended recipient.
Whenever you send an encrypted email message, only you and the intended recipient have the required encryption key. The recipient of your encrypted email has the required private key and this private key always matched the encryption public key. With this key, encrypted messages are decrypted once they reach the intended recipient. Anyone else without the key required cannot view and read your email messages.
How Email Encryption Works?
Email encryption works very similar to encryption technologies that instant messaging apps for Android, iOS, and Windows devices use to let you send self destruct, encrypted text messages, photos, videos, and other files. Email encryption technologies protect the private, confidential content you share via email from being accessed and read by third parties, and anyone else who is not the intended recipient.
When looking into how to encrypt email, you are looking for end-to-end encryption-empowered services, tools, and features. These generally employ public-key cryptography. Public-key cryptography used in these services is a powerful encryption system that uses public and private keys and their generation depends on sophisticated cryptographic algorithms. While public keys can be distributed private keys are always kept safe and secure for effective privacy and security.
When you send an email using standard emailing options, these email messages are usually encrypted as they travel from you to the intended recipient or during their transmission. However, at the same time, these messages are stored in their plain text form so they are readable by your email provider or some third parties. When you send an encrypted email, that message is encrypted during transmission as well as on your and the recipient’s part so it cannot be viewed by third parties or other outsiders.
The best, the most secure email encryption technology is end-to-end encryption and this is what you are looking for when learning how to encrypt email. The data within encrypted emails is encrypted on your part and then decrypted as it reaches the intended recipient. This means it is unreadable to your email service providers such as Outlook or Gmail. There are several different email encryption protocols that popular services use including S/MIME, PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), and GPG (GNU Privacy Guard).
How to Encrypt Email with Microsoft Outlook?
Further in this how to encrypt email guide, we take a look at Microsoft Outlook and its options for encrypting your emails. Launched by Microsoft, Microsoft Outlook is one of the most used email clients that operates as a part of the bigger Microsoft Office suite. Even though Microsoft Outlook is primarily an email client, it also features a variety of other options such as task managing, taking notes, contact managing, and calendaring.
Microsoft Outlook also offers Android and iOS apps while the Outlook mobile app also works across Windows-powered smartphones. So, how to encrypt email using Microsoft Outlook? If you have a Microsoft 365 Personal or Microsoft 365 Family subscription, you can encrypt your emails to ensure that the personal and confidential information you share is not accessible to third parties and intruders. In addition to encryption options, with Outlook you can also prevent forwarding of your emails which is another great feature. To get started, you need to be Microsoft 365 subscriber.
- To send an encrypted email with Outlook, open your Outlook client
- Click on the Encrypt button and pick one of two options
- The two options include Encrypt and Prevent Forwarding and just Encrypt
- To encrypt outgoing emails, click on the File tab and pick Options
- Open the Trust Center Settings and click on the Email Security button
- Find Encrypted Email and choose the Encrypt contents and attachments for outgoing messages
How to Encrypt Email with Yahoo?
Launched by the Yahoo company, Yahoo is another secure and one hundred percent reliable emailing service that has been around since 1997. As estimated in 2017, Yahoo had around 225 million users. It offers several different plans including Ad Free, Plus, and Basic for personal users. Just like with Microsoft Outlook, with the Yahoo email client, you can easily access and manage your Yahoo emails through its webmail client or via your web browser. So, how to encrypt email using this service.
Yahoo is empowered with SSL encryption technology or Secure Sockets Layer technology which protects your private, confidential emails from being accessed and viewed by intruders. However, when using Yahoo, you need to turn to third-party services to send encrypted Yahoo emails and this is not the case when using Gmail that offers everyone encryption options and when using Microsoft Outlook if you are a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscriber.
Fortunately, there are many great, reputable, and safe-to-use third-party services out there that do all the hard work for you. Some of these services that encrypt your Yahoo emails include:
- ProtonMail
- Ciphermail
- Virtru
- Startmail
- Enlocked
Therefore, when looking into how to encrypt email using Yahoo, the best option is to turn to these secure emailing services. ProtonMail is one of the most used and it is empowered with the best end-to-end encryption. When using ProtonMail, you can also password-protect your emails as well as set email expiration timers. With Virtru, you can easily encrypt your emails as well but you need to use Chrome and Gmail. Startmail is also great but unlike other services, it is not free. Enlocked for Chrome is free just like Ciphermail that works across Android-powered portable devices.