Email has become an integral part of our daily lives. The first part of your workday may be checking your email, whether it’s your personal, work, or school account. Emailing is one of the most popular and widely used ways to communicate, so it holds a remarkable about of personal and confidential information about its users.

In a world where data is quickly becoming increasingly important, whether personal or organizational, protecting yourself from prying eyes is much more important. Protecting your data from compromise, corruption, and loss is crucial, and having unsafe and unencrypted emails can put users at risk.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss why you should care about data encryption, the risk of unencrypted emails and how best to go about protecting your emails.

Your Data Is Valuable: Why You Should Protect It and How

As the popular quote goes, “data is the new oil”, referring to how, in today’s world, access to data is access to power. In a world post-Cambridge Analytica scandal and the many email security breaches of US politicians, it is clear how data can be used to affect real-world change, such as swinging the US election.

The consequences of having unsafe and unencrypted emails can be severe. Many email providers use algorithms to run targeted ads based on your email contents, so they do not provide encryption in their software by design. Encryption protects your email content as it cannot be read by entities other than the intended recipients.

The task of protecting your data still falls upon your shoulder, so keep in mind to:

• Use a strong, hard-to-crack password
• Use two-factor authentication whenever possible
• Never send confidential information via email
• Reconsider having sensitive conversations over email
• Explore privacy and security policies before picking a provider
• Ignore spam and phishing emails

The Risks of Unencrypted Email

Ensuring the security and encryption of your email inbox is essential for several reasons:

Encryption prevents data breaches where confidential information is taken and used with malicious intent. An encrypted email inbox protects sensitive information from being accessed by unauthorized parties. This includes personal information, such as passwords, credit card details, and national identity information, which hackers can use for identity theft and fraud. This can result in financial losses, legal liabilities, and damage to reputation. Encryption also helps prevent cyber attacks, such as phishing, malware, and ransomware, which can compromise the security of your entire device.

The dangers of unencrypted email are so great that encryption is now a legal requirement in many industries, such as healthcare, finance, and government.

How To Protect Your Email and Yourself

Protecting your email from attacks using email encryption comes in several forms, each with strengths and weaknesses. The most widely used forms of email encryption include:

• PGP (Pretty Good Privacy): PGP is a widely recognized and trusted encryption standard for email. It uses end-to-end encryption using public and private keys to ensure only the intended recipient can read the message. PGP has become the de facto standard for email security.
• S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions): S/MIME is another widely used encryption standard for email. It provides two services to ensure security; encryption to protect the content of email messages and digital signatures to verify the identity of the sender of an email message.
• TLS (Transport Layer Security): TLS is a protocol to secure email communication between email servers. It encrypts the connection between email servers, ensuring unauthorized parties cannot intercept or read messages in transit. However, TLS doesn’t provide end-to-end encryption, meaning the email provider or other authorized parties can still read emails.
• STARTTLS: Like TLS, STARTTLS is a protocol to secure email communication between email servers. It converts an unencrypted connection to an encrypted one, providing a secure communication channel between email servers. However, like TLS, it doesn’t provide end-to-end encryption either.
• End-to-end encryption apps: Several apps provide end-to-end encryption for emails, such as ProtonMail, Tutanota, and Canary Mail. These apps use their encryption standards to encrypt emails, ensuring only the intended recipient can read the message.

How Canary Mail Uses Encryption to Protect You

Canary Mail is built to protect you and your data from all malicious attacks, which is why it has a double-layered security protocol for your emails.

Canary’s basic security feature is SecureSend. SecureSend is an option that can be applied to emails, and encryption is handled automatically. This feature is the strongest line of defence from email data breaches. Best of all, it is easy to use, so whether you’re using it for personal or professional use, you know your emails and sensitive data are always protected.

Canary Mail also allows users to encrypt email using PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), a widely recognized and trusted encryption standard for email. If you are writing an email containing sensitive information, Canary allows you to encrypt it using PGP. This means that the contents of the email are scrambled into unreadable code that can only be deciphered by the intended recipient, who has the corresponding private key to decrypt the message.

Canary Mail also supports OpenPGP, an open-source implementation of PGP widely used in the industry. It allows for end-to-end encryption of emails, meaning that only the intended recipient can read the message. Canary Mail uses OpenPGP to provide users with a secure and private email experience.

In summary, Canary Mail provides encryption through PGP and OpenPGP standards. It allows for end-to-end encryption of emails, providing a secure and private email experience.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it’s crucial to ensure the security and encryption of email, as having unencrypted email can have several unsavory consequences. The sheer amount of news breaks based on email security breaches have only emphasized the importance of a secure and encrypted email inbox to prevent your data from being misused and exploited.

Therefore, it is crucial to take steps to improve email security. One of the best ways to do this is by using Canary Mail’s built-in SecureSend feature and PGP encryption method to protect your email from prying eyes.