Being one of the most used communication methods in the field of teleworking, Outlook has one of the strongest security structures between email services.
Thanks to this, we have quite interesting privacy protection functions, among which we can highlight the ability to send encrypted emails, in order to provide greater security to emails that may contain sensitive information.
In the next few paragraphs, We will teach you step by step how to activate and use this function to compose, send and receive encrypted emails, in addition to the best tools you can use to encrypt your messages.
How does email encryption work?
Email encryption is a function designed to protect the content of your emails to prevent it from being read by external entities or people, They are not intended to know this content. As usual, the security features of the Outlook mail service protect emails while they are stored on the server.
However, the journey from when the sender sends it and the recipient receives it, this information contained in the mail is at its most vulnerable point. Using an encryption tool does a great job of covering this weakness., making sure that the content of your emails is safe at every step of the writing and sending process.
Benefits of encrypting your emails
Given the current importance of electronic business communicationsAttention to the security of the content of services such as email and instant messaging is of vital importance. For these reasons, it is necessary to activate the email encryption functions in order to keep the information in your emails safe against possible malicious attacks and thus keep your data safe.
In addition to data protection, email encryption on platforms such as Outlook provides many other benefits, among which we can highlight the following:
- The function is not invasive at all, and it goes unnoticed visually by the user.
- Strengthen security of the data contained in the emails.
- It works as a shield against malicious attacks, identity theft and information theft, among other computer crimes.
- Encryption not only protects the content written in email, it also includes its attachments.
Learn how to encrypt and compose encrypted emails in Outlook
One of the best qualities of Outlook is security that provides the content data in your emails. Are security functions allow us the possibility of writing encrypted emails similar to how we would with any other email.
Go for it:
Encrypt mail
The Outlook desktop app You have the possibility to change the security of the emails you want to send, to generate two types of encryption. For general users, the application uses the S / MIME encryption protocol. While Outlook 365 users have their own protocol.
To use S / MIME encryption, the procedure is as follows:
- Opens the mail client of Outlook on your computer.
- Follow the route “File> Options> Trust Center> Settings”.
- Select the option “Mail security”, in the options panel on the left side.
- In the section “Encrypted email”, select the option “Setting”.
- Click on “To choose” in the section “Certificates and algorithms” and select the option “S / MIME Certificate”.
- Click on “Accept”.
Once you have finished the process, the next emails you send will be sent under the S / MIME encryption protocol, thus protecting the information in your emails against unwanted access, while providing a digital signature that guarantees its authenticity.
To use Outlook’s special encryption for your 365 subscribers, you must follow the steps below:
- click in “New message”.
- Inside the message, open the tab “Options”.
- Choose the option “Code”.
- click in “Encrypt only” in the drop-down menu.
With Mailvelope
It is a completely free extension, available for Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers. This tool uses the OpenPGP encryption protocol to send and receive encrypted emails. It uses a system of asymmetric private keys and public keys to encrypt and decrypt emails. The latter must be exchanged between sender and receiver to be able to read each other’s emails.
To use this security plugin, you just have to be guided by the following steps:
- Install the Mailvelope extension from your browser’s store.
- Access the settings from the extensions button in the browser.
- Click on “Options” and then in “Generate key”.
- Enter the requested data to generate your public key and click Submit.
- Now you will have your public key, which you must spread so that other people can send you emails.
- Broadcast your public key by following the path “Display keys> Export> Display public key”.
- Can create a text file with the public key and send it to a specific person, or post it on a public blog.
Compose encrypted mail
The Outlook desktop app has built-in by default the function of compose encrypted emails through security features.
To encrypt a single email, we just have to follow these steps:
- Opens the function of “New message”.
- While composing your message, click on “Archive”.
- Follow the path “Properties> Security settings> Encrypt message content and attachments.”
- Click on “Accept”.
Once configured, all you have to do is finish writing the email and send it in the same way as any other email. These settings apply only to mail that is currently being composed.
The best tools to encrypt emails in Outlook
For him email encryption in Outlook, we have a variety of tools that They are email clients that will allow us to access the Outlook account and use its native functions to strengthen the security of emails.
There are a good number of tools of this type, but the ones that have most successfully tested their compatibility with the encryption function for Outlook are the ones mentioned below:
Hushmail.com
Is a email tool which focuses on sending and receiving emails similar to any other provider, with the difference that the content of the emails is encrypted.
All emails sent through this tool are encrypted, and to use it you need to have a Hushmail account, which you can create for free. Encryption is activated automatically when sending emails to other Hushmail accounts, and to send to other email accounts, necessary enable a password with security question.
Protonmail.com
It is one of the most popular email clients that uses asymmetric encryption protocols and cryptography to enable an end-to-end encryption feature.
One of the main advantages of Outlook, It is the use of public key protocol for decryption of your emails. When an email is sent, it is encrypted with the public key of the recipient’s mailbox, upon receiving the message, the recipient will also receive a link where You will be given the private key with which you can decrypt the email.
Tutanota.com
Tutanota is an email service hosted on your own website and works as a mail client to send encrypted messages. Emails sent within its platform are automatically decrypted while those sent outside of Tutanota require a password.
Sending an email through Tutanota guarantees the security of its content, since all emails sent by this means are protected, making it a completely secure communication channel for communication through email.
Mailfence.com
One of the best alternatives in email clients focused on privacy. Their servers are completely secure and maintains an encryption protocol supported by OpenPGP. This encryption protocol keeps the information in your emails safe from the moment they leave your mailbox until they reach the recipient’s inbox, avoiding at all times any type of malicious attack by third parties.
Zoho.com
It is one of the most powerful security platforms available today, and a great choice for business and personal email management. It has very versatile information management tools to configure the privacy of your emails. Zoho works with the S / MIME encryption protocol, which uses asymmetric cryptography to keep your email information safe on the way, in addition to providing authenticity to the averaged email with a digital signature.