Secure/private email options

[RockShawn]

Originally posted by beanlicker at BOP: maybe this will help

There's really only one way to ensure that your emails are kept confidential....encrypt them. The two most popular forms of email encryption are OpenPGP and S/MIME. Encryption scrambles your email into something unintelligible that only someone who has the correct digital "key" can read.

If you are located outside of the US (in a safe country) like some of our sources then using Gmail is not as risky as it would be for John Smith in BFE, Montana. The feds have shown over and over that they can easily access U.S. based non-encrypted email providers like Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail and Gmail.

So far, with the exception of Keptprivate, encrypted email providers located within the U.S. have successfully hidden behind their inability to crack their own encryption inorder to avoid cooperation with the Feds, but Congress may soon require social networks, VoIP, and Webmail providers to build in back doors that the FBI could tap for electronic surveillance purposes: http://www.informationweek.com/news/...ment/240000653

The honest answer is that nothing is truly 100% secure. However, if you are a betting man, you can roll the dice on any provider located as far from the U.S. as possible. I like the below listed choices (especially s-mail because they are located in Russia):

>countermail - server is in Sweden and you pay for use

>mutemail - server is Bahamas and you pay for use

>guardmail - server appears to be in Germany (but not positive) and service is Free

>s-mail - server is in Russia and service is free

>ssl.mailvault - server is in Germany and service is free

>anonymouspeech - server is in Panama and you pay for use

WARNING: cyber-rights.net and hushmail.com are two other free options located in Canada, but they MAY be working with the Feds.

Hushmail DID cooperate with the feds during ORD and should not be trusted

Also, as of 12/2012, there have been multiple reports of safe-mail server is in Israel) email accounts being hacked.

This list is not all inclusive, so feel free to add an encrypted email provider to this thread if you have another safe option.

 

[Too Small]

Nice....looks like I'm going to switch over to s-mail from safe-mail.

 

[SoCal]

Thanks for the post. I have been back burnering going to secure email for too long

 

[GRIM]

Thanks for the post. I have been back burnering going to secure email for too long

i dont have 1 atm as i dont order anything :O

 

[nottybody]

So safemail isn't safe?

 

[TheMuscleMan]

No safe-mail gets hacked alot, happened to us last week.

 

[nottybody]

No safe-mail gets hacked alot, happened to us last week.

ok thanks for heads up. What's the safest

 

[TheMuscleMan]

I think that a paid service would be better than a free service.

 

[RockShawn]

I've been on countermail for a while. Never heard of them getting hacked and their security policy is too notch. They can't even decode your mail, thus they don't know what activity is being conducted and therefore are not compelled to cooperate with le. It's cheap too. And somewhat compatible with iPhone.

 

[TheMuscleMan]

What about securenym and anonymousspeech?

 

[24hreup]

NEVER should you use safe-mail they are known to co with LE and are anything but safe! IP send with headers , they keep logs also they have been hacked before ! a gmail acc is safer than safe mail!! and you can also encrypt your gmail with open pgp.

Countermail and securenym are the best options til this date.

 

[RockShawn]

What about securenym and anonymousspeech?

Of those I would say securenym. I've known anonymous users that say the server is down all the time and sometimes they don't get mail, ESP when its from another secure provider.

 

[Too Small]

Just a quick update...

I have switched to S-mail. It was a pain in the ass to set up via Mozilla so I had to use IE. Works great and seems pretty damn tight and secure.