How secure is our email really?

[WarNoMore]

I really want to email something to someone that I really feel is important, but have absolutely no faith in the security of the internet.

[Jon8503]

1. You could encrypt it.

[grumpy44]

2. Email has never been secure

Never email anything you don't want the whole world to read.

Once it's left your computer, the recipient can forward it to anyone or post it anywhere.

You have to heavily encrypt a file if you want it to be secure.

[WarNoMore]

4. Kinda what I figured.

Forget encryption, I was that one that replied to the computer thread about my ignorence. lol Thanks anyway.

[salvorhardin]

3. E-mail is sent as plain text

That means it can be read at any point between you and your intended recipient without anyone knowing it has been intercepted.

There are plenty of free, secure ways of encrypting your e-mail, although it will take a little bit of learning on your part.

If you're a Windows user I can recommend the WinPT (Windows Privacy Tools) project which includes both GPG (Gnu Privacy Guard) and and WinPT tray tool, an easy to use front-end for GPG that lives in your system tray. Choose to download the complete package to get everything all together. http://winpt.sourceforge.net/en/download.php

[WarNoMore]

5. Thanks again.

My daughter and her so are pretty good with this stuff. I'll see if I can get them on it.

[Elidor]

6. You can take it for granted that the NSA intercepts all email

I don't know how successful they are against encryption, but then, there's nothing like being able to order the makers of encryption software to give you the keys, so I'd imagine they're pretty successful overall.

And it's all legal.