Tag Archives: best encrypted email systems

In the dust-up regarding leaked Democratic National Committee emails, we are surprised DNC members were not using encrypted emails. Especially for their their personal accounts. Everyone in their position needs email privacy. They should consider apps like Wickr, which allows users to send messages to each other that are “secured with military-grade encryption” and that are destroyed after a user-set time period. Unlike some other secure messaging services, Wickr also ensures that your messages can’t even be read by Wickr itself.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has given Wickr high marks for data protection. PC Mag calls it “best secure messenger on Android.” (Though it “has a little ways to go before it becomes the best messenger app overall.” PC Mag  gives that title to voice and messaging app Viber.)

Wickr’s co-founder and CEO Nico Sell runs a white-hat hacking camp at the Def Con conference in Las Vegas every year. The camp is designed for “children and teenagers,” but we hear that doesn’t stop a lot of adults from participating. It starts next week.

 
 

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the largest organization dedicated to Internet privacy and related issues. Its resources are considered the gold standard by many experts.

That’s why their Secure Messaging Scorecard caught our attention. It examines dozens of messaging technologies and rates each of them using a range of security metrics. If you already use messaging you think is secure, you may be in for a surprise. (Hint:  low ratings are given to Google Hangouts/Chat “Off the Record,” Hushmail, Skype and Yahoo Messenger, among others.)

The scorecard is part of a campaign the EFF has undertaken in collaboration with Julia Angwin at ProPublica and Joseph Bonneau at the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy to help consumers access tools to encrypt their communications. They are championing technologies that are strongly secure and also simple to use.

If you are interested in using the safest encryption tools in your communications, their report is essential reading.