Does a VPN protect email? Well, unfortunately, the answer is no, a VPN (Virtual Private Network) does not provide any protection for your email messages, but that’s not to say you can’t protect sensitive, personal, private email messages. In order to protect email you can use encryption, there are many ways this can be done, as a matter of fact, you can encrypt, Gmail, Outlook, iOS, OSX, Yahoo, Android, and Webmail. You can encrypt email messaging and depending on your email service provider, it can be enabled through the settings or the use of 3rd party apps. You can also use free/paid mail encryption services, which we will discuss later.
First, we will look at how encryption works and the types of encryption used, to encrypt your email messages.
How Email Encryption Works
Email encryption is basically scrambling the contents of an email message making it a puzzle, which only you have the key to solve. The PKI ( Public Key Infrastructure ) is used to encrypt and decrypt email messages. Each person is assigned a public and private key, this is in the form of a digital code.
The public key is stored on a key server, along with the persons’ name and email address. This public key is used to encrypt email messages, for example, if someone sends you an encrypted email message they would use your public key to encrypt. Your private key is used to decrypt the email message. The private key is stored on your computer in a secure and private place in which you are the only one that has access.
Your key can also be used as a digital signature as proof that an email message was sent by you.
Types Of Email Encryption
The two main types of email encryption are S/MIME and PGP/MIME. S/MIME stands for ( Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions ) it is built into most iOS and OSX devices. S/MIME relies on a central authority to choose the encryption algorithm. S/MIME is most often used because it is built into larger web-based email companies such as Outlook and Apple.
The other type of email encryption used is PGP/MIME which stands for ( Pretty Good Privacy Multipurpose Internet Email Extensions ). PGP/MIME uses a decentralized trust model and was developed to address security issues that are inherent in plain text messages. PGP/MIME provides more control and flexibility over the encryption used in your email messages. PGP/MIME encryption requires 3rd party encryption tool app.
Some various email services and the encryption they use are :
- Gmail – Has S/MIME built into the app. Encryption only works if both the sender and receiver have enabled.
- Outlook – Uses S/MIME, but requires additional user setup.
- iOS, OSX – Uses as default the built-in S/MIME encryption.
Email service providers that require 3rd party encryption tools :
- Yahoo – Uses 3rd party app to encrypt with either S/MIME or PGP/MIME. Yahoo also uses as an extra layer of protection that is known as SSL ( Secure Sockets Layer ).
- Android – can use both S/MIME and PGP/MIME, but requires extra user setup and 3rd party app.
Email Encryption Services
As mentioned earlier, they are a variety of free/paid email encryption services you can use, some of them are :
- Cipher Mail – is a free app for use with Android devices. It uses S/MIME encryption.
- Mail Envelope – This is a free app used on Chrome and Firefox browsers, compatible with Gmail, GMX, Outlook, and Yahoo. It uses open PGP/MIME encryption
- Enig Mail – Is free extension used on Mozilla Thunderbird. It uses open PGP public key email encryption and decryption, it is compatible with Microsoft Windows, Unix-like, and Mac OSX operating system.
- Gpg4win – Is a free email and file encryption package. It uses GnuPG public-key encryption for data and digital signatures. It is compatible with most versions of Microsoft Windows.
- Proton Mail – Has free and paid plans, it allows end-to-end encryption with PGP/MIME compatibility. The paid service price levels are dependent on how many domains and messages are sent per day.
- Vitru – Provides open end-to-end encryption, used on Chrome and G Suite browsers and is compatible with Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, and Yahoo.
- Send 2.0 – Provides military-grade encryption. It works with Outlook plug-in and is compatible with Outlook and Gmail.
These are only a few of the service providers, they are more that you could research and choose one that would fit your specific needs.
Fake, Disposable, 10 Minute Email Services
These are just a few of the names to describe these types of email services. Fake email services will provide you with a fake email address from which you can send, receive email messages. These email services allow you to send encrypted emails anonymously. The fake email address will protect your primary mailbox from spam, junk email, etc. Most of these services are free to use, there are many to choose from, so you may want to research and find the one that will fit your needs. Here are a few :
- Guerrilla Mail
- Temp Mail
- Email Fake
- Trash Mail
- Dead Fake
In The End
So again a VPN does not protect emails, but if you are worried about email privacy, and or your emails being seen and read by other than the intended recipients, you can protect by means of encryption.
The good thing about using email encryption, for most users it is free, with either user enabled, or 3rd party downloadable app or web browser extensions. You can safely secure your email content, you can ensure your privacy.
With the varied means to protect yourself from viruses, malware, spam, junk email, hackers, email encryption will help with the whole internet, online security needed when navigating the web today. There are so many unforeseen threats that lurk on the internet, waiting for an unsecured connection, to steal, harvest and sell your information. Email encryption is just another tool to totally shut out these threats.
I hope you enjoyed and found this post informative and if you have any questions regarding VPN’s please leave me a comment, and I will get back to you soon, Thank you
Stay secure and always practice
Safe Text !!!