3 ms·
You could pgp encrypt anything that you really don't to be read in transit. Short of that, you might as well assume that your emails are being read and stored
by bhousel 15y ago
You could pgp encrypt anything that you really don't to be read in transit. Short of that, you might as well assume that your emails are being read and stored by third parties.
Even if you personally use the most secure email server in the world, it doesn't matter because everyone that you send email to or from is likely using hosted services like gmail, verizon, hotmail, etc.
- 16s 15y agoOne big point here is that PGP only works when both sender and receiver and doing it. Try sending Bank of America a PGP encrypted email about your account. See what happens. Edit: Re-reading my response... I don't mean this in a condescending way and I agree that PGP is a good way to handle email privacy. I only meant to point out that the majority of people don't use it.
- mike-cardwell 15y agoDepends. All of my incoming email is encrypted with my public key as soon as it hits my mail server: https://grepular.com/Automatically_Encrypting_all_Incoming_Email https://grepular.com/Automatically_Encrypting_all_Incoming_E... So if my mail server or any of my imap clients are compromised, my mail isn't.
- morganpyne 15y agoAll of your incoming email has travelled through so many insecure servers on it's way to you that encrypting it on receipt is like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.
- mike-cardwell 15y agoUntrue. A lot of my core correspondance run their own mail systems and use TLS. Even for those who don't, having my mail encrypted on all of my clients and on my own server is still a big gain for me security-wise. Just because I can't secure the senders system, doesn't mean I shouldn't bother securing my own.
- jrockway 15y agoTry sending Bank of America a PGP encrypted email about your account. Well, you have to use their web form anyway, which is encrypted. The reason they require a web form instead of email is for exactly the reasons PGP exists: they need to know that you are sending the email, and they need to know that someone else isn't reading their reply to you. Webs of trust are hard, a text box on their SSL website is easy.