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.