How to Encrypt Webmail
There is a lot of concern over the security and privacy of web-based email. You are trusting your private message to travel through many public hands, all while using a possibly insecure browser to access the email in the first place. If your web-based email service allows you to access your email from a personal email client, then using a stand-alone client with an encryption plugin is your best option. Otherwise, you can use utilities based on the OpenPGP public key cryptography standard, used by the military and National Security Agency, to encrypt your messages before sending them.
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Instructions
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PGP Desktop
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1
Launch a text editor, and compose your email's body as you normally would. Once you have finished, highlight all of the text in your message and copy it to your clipboard.
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2
Click the PGP desktop icon in your computer's system tray, and pointer to the "Clipboard" option. Select either "Encrypt" or "Encrypt & Sign," if you want to sign the message for increased security.
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3
Choose either "Conventional Encryption" for symmetric encryption, or drag and drop the recipient's public key into the recipient box to use public key encryption. Conventional Encryption will require that you give the recipient the password later, preferably in a secure environment.
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4
Click "OK," and if you chose to use Conventional Encryption, you should enter a password before clicking "OK" again.
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5
Launch your Web browser, and navigate to your web-based email service. Log in as you normally would, and compose a message to the recipient. Paste the contents of your clipboard, now encrypted, into the body of the message, and click "Send."
Gpg4Win
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Use your programs menu to launch the WinPT tool if it is not currently running. If the application is running, you will see a small key in your system tray.
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7
Launch a text editor, and compose your email's body as you normally would. Once you have finished, highlight all of the text in your message and copy it to your clipboard.
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8
Right-click the WinPT system tray icon, and click the "Encrypt" option. Select the recipient's public key from the provided list, and click "OK" to begin the encryption process.
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9
Launch your Web browser, and navigate to your web-based email service. Log in as you normally would, and compose a message to the recipient. Paste the contents of your clipboard, now encrypted, into the body of the message, and click "Send."
GPG
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10
Launch a text editor, and compose your email's body as you normally would. Once you have finished, highlight all of the text in your message and copy it to your clipboard.
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11
Save the text file as plaintext, using either the TXT extension or no extension at all. Close the text editor. Launch a command prompt or terminal window, depending on your operating system, and navigate to the file location on your hard drive.
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12
Type "gpg -e RCPT filename.txt", where RCPT is replaced by the email address of the recipient as it appears in your public keyring and filename.txt is the text file you created before. Press "Enter" to encrypt the file.
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13
Launch your web browser, and navigate to your web-based email service. Log in as you normally would, and compose a message to the recipient. Either attach the text file to the message or reopen the encrypted version of the text file so you can copy and paste the contents into the message body. Click "Send" to finish.
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