As one of the most popular and used email services in the world, Gmail has one of the best security structures available on the market, with many functions that guarantee the security of your emails.
One of these functions, and among the most important, is the end-to-end encryption with an extra layer of security for the content of your emails, that may have sensitive information.
In the case of a security function, it is necessary to know its operation before starting to use it, and in this article we will teach you how to get the most out of this important tool.
What is Google End-to-End and what is this Gmail tool for?
End-to-End is a security tool developed by Google that works as an encoder to encrypt outgoing emails, making them more secure. It is available as a google chrome extension, so its function is only possible within this browser. When used, the sent emails are encrypted at the sending computer, and decrypted at the receiver.
The usefulness of this protection method stands out when we consider that the only vulnerable point of sending Gmail emails is the email itself. This tool covers this weakness and keeps the content of the message safe on its way from one computer to another.
What are the benefits of encrypting your Gmail email? Reasons to do it
The message encryption it is a security procedure that has been applied to many communication services, especially emails and instant messaging. The importance of data encryption lies in the protection it offers to data against possible malicious attacks. Since an encrypted email can only be read by the recipient, any interception attempt will render it unreadable to the attacker.
Among the most outstanding benefits of data encryption, we can highlight the following points:
- The security changes in the mail they are not perceived as users.
- Strengthen security of the content of the emails.
- Prevents against attacks, usurpation identity and Stole of information.
- The encryption extends to email attachments, protecting them against interception.
Learn step by step how to encrypt Gmail emails with End-to-End from the Chrome browser
For ensure the security of our emails from their shipment until they reach their destination, Chrome provides us with a useful encryption tool to encrypt the content of our emails, call Secure Mail for Gmail.
This extension is available in the Chrome Web Store and we can use it as follows:
Download Secure Mail for Gmail on Chrome
The first step is to get the right tool for the job, and in this case, it’s all about the extension of Google Chrome Secure Mail for Gmail. Through this tool we can begin to optimize the protection of our emails.
To acquire it, you just have to follow this procedure:
- Open the browser Chrome on your computer.
- click in the applications icon.
- Choose the application “Chrome Web Store”.
- In the search bar, type the name of the application.
- As soon as it appears in the list of results, select and search “Add to Chrome.”
Encrypt your email
Once the add-on is installed, We can see a modification added to our Gmail mailbox. This is a button next to the option “Write”.
Through this button, we can use the encryption function as follows:
- In your inbox, click on the add button of the extension, located next to the access “Write”.
- This access will open an alternative writing window, clearly differentiated with details in red.
- As soon as you compose your email on a regular basis, click the button “Send Encrypted”.
- By pressing the submit button, a window will open requesting an encryption password, which the recipient must know in order to access the mail.
This is all you will need to send encrypted emails. As an additional function, the extension will show us a text box with which you will be able to write clues of the password, in order not to lose it.
Decrypt your email
Once we have learned to send encrypted emails, the next step is to learn what to do when we receive one.
As a basic requirement, the recipient of the email must have the Secure Mail for Gmail extension installed in their browser:
- In the interface where the message is shown, we will see the text “This message is encrypted” highlighted in a yellow drawer
- When clicking on that email, a window will appear in which we must enter the password that the sender has provided us.
- Once the password is set, click “Decrypt”.
Thus, we can open encrypted messages from any sender who uses the Secure Mail for Gmail extension. This will greatly strengthen the security of our inbox and keep sensitive information in our mail protected.
List of the best alternative extensions to End-to-End to secure your Gmail email
Chrome Web Store provides us with a large number of tools that allows us to encrypt the content of our emails, in order to keep our information secure.
We will give you the name of the best extensions focused on email encryption that you can find for free in the Chrome app store:
Digify for Gmail
It is a multipurpose extension that allows you to increase the security of your emails through end-to-end encryption. In addition to this, it offers tools such as view tracking, and revocation of access. Through Digify, we can automatically encrypt emails and attachments, maintaining complete control over the views and reception of our emails.
CypherMail
This tool allows users to encrypt emails sent to any email service, from Gmail to Outlook and Yahoo! Mail, maintaining high security standards and allowing the sharing of emails between different addresses. CypherMail works with standard S / MIME encryption protocols, based on certificates generated on the fly by using an email address. This method is one of the most recommended by computer security experts.
FossaGuard
FossaGuard is an email security add-on that offers the user industrial grade S / MIME encryption to keep email content and attachments safe on the go. With this extension we will have access to both automatic signatures, and encryption with X.509 certificate. All emails will be encrypted with a personalized password, along with trusted certificates obtained from your local storage unit.