Email encryption

Email encryption is encryption of email messages to protect the content from being read by entities other than the intended recipients. Email encryption may also include authentication.

Email is prone to the disclosure of information. Although many emails are encrypted during transmission, they are frequently stored in plaintext, potentially exposing them to unauthorized access by third parties, including email service providers.^[1] By default, popular email services such as Gmail and Outlook do not enable end-to-end encryption.^[2] Utilizing certain available tools, unauthorized individuals may access and read the email content.^[3]

Email encryption can rely on public-key cryptography, in which users can each publish a public key that others can use to encrypt messages to them, while keeping secret a private key they can use to decrypt such messages or to digitally encrypt and sign messages they send.