How to Encrypt Your Email
by J Martin Ward for Daves Computer Tips
Step by step instructions for protecting your email privacy.
–PC Pitstop.
Millions of people every day send messages to friends, colleagues, and business contacts, written on postcards. Electronic postcards, but still readable by anyone who cares to pick them up. Would you send a letter without an envelope? Every time you send an ordinary e-mail, that’s what you’re doing. What you need is encryption.
Difficult? Complicated? Well, not really, although e-mail client software like Outlook and Windows Mail hasn’t gone to any trouble to make it easier. They’ve hidden the set-up two or three layers down in the menu structure, for a start. Try to find any help on getting started, and you’ll find yourself giving up pretty quickly unless you’re determined. That’s where I hope this article will help.
If you are a journalist who needs to protect his or her sources, you really need to be doing this right now, as a matter of routine . If you are a dissident in a repressive country, you already know that you could go to jail if your messages are read, and more and more governments are buying the technology to make that possible. If you are politically active, know that you are probably on the radar of law enforcement, and you need to take avoiding action.
The journalist Glenn Greenwald nearly missed the Edward Snowden scoop because he initially found it too much effort to learn how to communicate with Snowden securely. Once Laura Poitras had started encrypted communications with Snowden, Greenwald learnt fast. And, as Snowden later pointed out, if Greenwald can do it anyone can. It’s worth the effort, but you do need to pay attention!
These excerpts are shared with permission from davescomputertips.com.
