How to send secure encrypted email for free

Posted on December 5, 2007 at 10:35 am

Need to send someone some very sensitive data in an encrypted email message? Of course, you can always send it via normal email channels, but you run the risk of having your email read by someone who knows how to capture email messages as they are sent across the Internet. If you’re technically savvy, you can configure encryption in Outlook, but it requires a large amount of technical knowledge and a good amount of time.

If you’re looking for a quick way to send someone private data, like a credit card number or password, then you might want to take a look at a new online web service called Lockbin.

Lockbin does all of the dirty work of encrypting the data for you using a strong encryption algorithm, etc, so all you have to do is think of a password and click Send.

Here’s how it works: when you want to send a message, you first need to think up a secret word or password, which will be used by their cryptographic algorithm to encrypt and store the email on their servers. Then you need to transmit this password to the person who will be receiving the email via phone, text message, IM, or via unprotected email!

Then the receiver visits Lockbin and enters his password to decrypt the email in his/her local browser. The actual decryption does not take place on the server and hence no data is being transferred across the Internet during the decryption process. As soon as the email is opened, the encrypted message is deleted from the Lockbin servers forever, no copy or backup is kept. Here’s how my message “I have a secret” is stored on Lockbin servers.

It’s certainly not a fool-proof way to send encrypted email, but it’s definitely better than sending sensitive data through normal email programs like Gmail or Outlook, which can be easily read via network sniffer programs. Source MakeUseOf

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6 Responses to “How to send secure encrypted email for free”

Keith Dsouza said on : December 5th, 2007 at 2:02 pm

Seems to be a great tool, I definitely send out a lot of confidential emails out and this would help in keeping that information safe.

akishore said on : December 6th, 2007 at 9:40 am

Keith - It’s definitely much easier than sending secure encrypted email from Outlook! I tried that once and it took forever and I had to send all kinds of files and instructions to the receiver also!

anonymous email said on : December 6th, 2007 at 10:47 am

Why not using GnuPG? Then you dont need any middleware.

Russ said on : January 20th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

I just clicked on the Lockbin link and a Security Alert pop-up stated that the website’s security certificate is expired or not yet valid. I of course did not proceed.

Someone might want to inform this security service website that they appear to be unsecure.

akishore said on : January 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 am

Hi Russ, just noticed the same thing too! Not good! Looks like the certificate expired and they have not updated it yet. Thanks.