Email Security

Protecting Your Most Important Communication Channel

The Email Problem

Email was never designed for security or privacy. By default, emails travel across the internet in plaintext, can be read by providers, and metadata reveals communication patterns.

Provider Access Gmail, Outlook read your emails for advertising
Transit Interception Emails can be intercepted between servers
Metadata Exposure Who, when, subject lines visible to many parties

Secure Email Providers

ProtonMail

Swiss-based, end-to-end encrypted, zero-access encryption. Easy to use with built-in PGP.

Tutanota

German-based, encrypted mailbox and contacts. Uses own encryption rather than PGP.

Mailbox.org

German provider with PGP support, calendar, cloud storage. Privacy-focused.

💡

Note: Encrypted email only works when both parties use it. Emails to regular Gmail/Outlook users are not fully protected.

PGP Encryption

PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) provides end-to-end encryption for email. You have a public key (share with others) and private key (keep secret).

pgp-basics
# Generate a new key pair
$ gpg --full-generate-key
# Export public key to share
$ gpg --armor --export you@email.com
# Encrypt a message
$ gpg --encrypt --recipient them@email.com message.txt
# Decrypt a message
$ gpg --decrypt message.txt.gpg

Email Security Practices

  • Use unique, strong passwords
  • Enable two-factor authentication
  • Disable remote image loading
  • Be suspicious of all attachments
  • Verify sender addresses carefully
  • Use alias addresses for signups
  • Regularly review account activity
  • Don't click links in emails—type URLs manually

Email Aliases

Use different email addresses for different purposes to prevent tracking and reduce spam.

SimpleLogin

Open-source alias service

Service

AnonAddy

Unlimited aliases, self-hostable

Service

Plus Addressing

user+site@domain.com

Built-in
Related

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