Secure Email: Have we reached a point of consensus?

[Portreve]

I'm not looking for technical help or explanations, but I'm interested in hearing what, if any such system, you folks use. I'm also looking for broader input about if there's a larger discussion going on out there, and if we're heading towards any particular system.

Many systems and solutions exist, but the big name ones I know about are Tutanota, Proton Mail, and PGP.

But, by all means, educate me and let's help educate the broader community.

Thanks in advance, folks.

[AZgl1800]

Other than encrypting the actual message, the only other way I have is my Proton email account.

[phd21]

HI Portreve,

There have been some really good discussions on this topic in this forum. There is one link below.

"ProtonMail" is great, but it is only secure with other ProtonMail users. AFAIK for now, Linux users have no desktop email client option for using "ProtonMail" or its encryption key, it is totally browser web based. This is supposed to change in the future though.

ProtonMail now supports IMAP/SMTP in desktop environments (Windows and MacOS now, Linux coming soon). The ProtonMail Bridge is an application for paid users that runs on your computer in the background and seamlessly encrypts and decrypts your mail as it enters and leaves your computer.
ProtonMail IMAP/SMTP Bridge - Encrypted Email IMAP Support
https://protonmail.com/bridge/

Linux users who want truly secure email for free with anyone on any computer operating system can use GPG/PGP encryption keys with almost any email provider they currently have (Gmail, Yahoo, etc...) that supports "imap" or "pop3" account access using one of the email software clients that supports encryption like the great Thunderbird email client with its excellent "Enigmail" add-on. "Evolution" and KDE's "Kmail", and some others are also available ... Of course, you can use one of the encryption applications (GPA, Kleopatra, KGpg, etc...) to encrypt any text and then add that as an attachment to any email from any email provider, web-based or email client, and as long as the sender and the recipients have exchanged their public GPG/PGP encryption keys, then only they will be able to decrypt the messages and or attachments.

Encrypted e-mail discussion - Linux Mint Forums
viewtopic.php?f=58&t=237173&hilit=secure+email

Hope this helps ...

[DAMIEN1307]

hi portreve...other than going "all paranoid wearing my tin foil hat" the only email services i find that i have any faith in (and even that much trust is always limited at best) have been paired down to just the 2 i use...i use zoho.com for regular use and protonmail.com for anything that requires about the best security possible such as my banking, insurances etc...im using their free versions but they also have paid versions available...at least im free of the g-mail hoover vacuum cleaner...thats my 2 cents worth for what its worth...DAMIEN

[jimallyn]

I have a ProtonMail account, but after opening it I found several sites that recommend against it. I plan to install the EnigMail addon to Thunderbird soon. Here's one article on ProtonMail:

https://www.wired.com/2015/10/mr-robot- ... ly-secure/

There is a lot of good stuff on this website:

https://ssd.eff.org/

The Civil Liberties Defense Center also has a LOT of good security information, and they recommend EnigMail, but NOT ProtonMail:

https://cldc.org/organizing-resources/protonmail/

Both the ssd.eff.org and the cldc.org sites are good sources for security information.

[absque fenestris]

Americans like Proton Mail (with the Matterhorn on the website) Swiss citizens - like me - deposit their mail on Mailbox.org in Germany...
Since the legendary banking secrecy in Switzerland has been history for a few years, this probably also applies to local servers.

PGP, GPG Keychain, OpenKeychain are installed on my devices.
Well... the only person I occasionally send encrypted mails is - myself.
Nobody, but really nobody in my closer or wider circle of acquaintances is interested in it. Encrypt? Iiiiiiiiih...
I gave it up.

[xenopeek]

When I read "secure email" I think of other things than just end-to-end encrypting email as, like for absque fenestris, most of my contacts do not use PGP. I still require secure email in the way I think of it: TLS required for all connections to the servers, 2FA for login, no ads / no tracking / "I'm the customer not the product", default blocking of external content like images, content security policy on the website to prevent 3rd party scripts from running, encrypting email in-transit between mail servers, implementing DKIM signing and SPF (also for my own domains) for sender authentication, and of course run the servers with free software.

So no, I don't need PGP as most of my personal and business contacts wouldn't know what to do with it. In every other respect I want an email provider that goes the distance to provide secure email as I think about it. For me and my clients that has been FastMail for a long while now. They explain why they don't do PGP: https://blog.fastmail.com/2016/12/10/wh ... offer-pgp/

I have experience with a lot of email providers and none meet my requirements as FastMail has. The fact that they run their servers with free software and actively participate in and initiate development of free software and open standards is just the ethical cherry on top.

[trytip]

i been encrypting things like this since ubuntu 12.04 have it working in pluma and gedit arch or linux/mint/mate/17.3 or pclinuxos but i don't really have any trade secrets i need to encrypt just nice to play with every once in a while. kgpg can also encrypt video/audio files into text mode like you see here but like xenopeek says most people have no clue about encryption. protonmail should be fine for any personal documents

[BigEasy]

Many systems and solutions exist, but the big name ones I know about are Tutanota, Proton Mail, and PGP.

It's depend. If you want to hide your messages from occasional curios men then encode your messages. If you want to hide from something like FBI then encoding will not help. They will knock in your door, ask you, and then you give them your key by yourself.

[Portreve]

Thanks, folks. Yeah, that pretty much confirms what I was suspecting. It's kind of sad in a way, but it is what it is.

Whether it's email security, social media platforms, politics... if the people you're dealing with don't care themselves, then you're high and dry.