Email encryption - what to look out for

Nowadays, many documents are sent as emails. This can involve sensitive information and content. For this reason, email encryption is important. This ensures that only the sender and recipient have access to the e-mail. A digital signature is usually used for this.

This is what you need to know about email encryption

If you want to send sensitive content via email, it is important to pay attention to encryption. When encrypting e-mails, a basic distinction is made between transport and end-to-end encryption.

1. Point-to-point or transport encryption establishes a connection between your e-mail program and the server. This connection is then encrypted using the TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocol. Here, the e-mail is only protected during the sending process. When the e-mail is sent, it passes through several nodes where it is available in plain text. If another person wants to intercept the e-mail, then this is possible with a "man-in-the-middle attack" via these nodes.
2. An alternative to this is end-to-end encryption. Here, the email itself is encrypted and not the connection. Thus, it is possible that only the sender and recipient can read the email, as a special key is required for this. If the e-mail is intercepted en route, it cannot be read by third parties. This encryption thus fulfills the three important criteria that encryption on the Internet should meet: Confidentiality, Integrity and Authenticity.