Electronic Mail or “Email” was one of the first modes of digital communication. In today’s digital and tech-savvy world, it has become an important necessity to have an email address. It is almost similar to having a driving license. With the increase in the popularity of emails, the risks of cyber-attacks involving email also increased rapidly. Thus, the need for Secure Mail Services like Proton mail, Kolab now, Mailfence, and Tutanota increased.
A major behind this is that people don’t pay attention to some key aspects such as privacy while creating an email account and the email service providers take advantage of this fact by selling their usage statistics and data to other companies to gain huge profits.
Thus, while creating an email account, it is very important to read and understand the platform’s privacy policy and security measures. Most people today have a Gmail account because it is a very popular and most used service. Most of the user data is sold by Google so it is highly insecure. So, we have created a list of the top 5 most secure email service providers which are way more secure and privacy-friendly than Gmail or some other popular mail service –
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ProtonMail Secure Mail Service:
When it comes to secure and reliable email services, the most trusted and popular name is ProtonMail which is arguably the highest-profile encrypted email service available today. It is a Switzerland-based service founded in 2013 in Geneva and was originally set up in the wake of the Snowden leaks, and was advertised as the ‘only email service the NSA can’t break’, at that time.
All emails are secured by the platform using end-to-end encryption and are also encrypted at rest. One of the most unique features offered by this mail service is the feature of self-destructing the messages that automatically delete themselves after a specified time.
ProtonMail claims that its servers are locked down in a Swiss bunker under 1,000 meters of solid rock, that can survive a nuclear attack. It follows the principle of zero access and zero-knowledge, which means that the servers and working staff have no way of accessing or sharing your emails. ProtonMail also provides excellent mobile app services.
Kolab Now:
This was formerly known MyKolab is a web-based, open-source email service managed and run by Kolab Systems AG. The company pledges to never put its users under any surveillance or sell any kind of user data. Kolab Now also provides a range of other useful services including secure email, contacts, scheduling, calendar, collaboration tools, cloud storage, etc.
Which makes it a complete email suite and one of Google’s close competitors. It is very useful for people wanting to switch their business over to a more secure set of services because its servers are also located in a secure facility in Switzerland. It supports Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS), which means that the encryption keys are temporary in nature and attackers won’t be able to use any key apart from the disposable one that has been used in that particular session.
MailFence:
MailFence is a very secure mail service launched in 2013 by ContactOffice Group that has been working independently as an online collaboration suite for educational institutes and organizations since 1999. Its servers are located in Belgium which has very strict laws pertaining to the prevention of third-party access to email making it among one of the few email service providers with user privacy being guaranteed by law.
It basically an encrypted email service offering end-to-end encryption and digital signatures based on OpenPGP. It allows users to generate and share their own private keys. Its service is entirely browser-based which is actually a great advantage because it keeps things simple. You don’t have to download apps or plugins and the entire encryption is performed through your browser itself. The MailFence browser interface also provides a VPN, which adds to the anonymity of the security it provides. The mails encrypted by the Mailfence can be operated by any OpenPGP-compatible service making them fully encrypted. At the same time without the need for the recipient to decrypt it manually.
Tutanota:
Tutanota is arguable the most Secure Mail Service provider out there at the moment. It is one of the best choices for a secure and privacy-friendly email platform. The company is based in Germany which has very strong data privacy laws. Its motto is “Einfach, Sicher, Mailen” which translates to “Easy, Secure, Mailing”. Since Tutanota’s business model exempts earning money through any sort of advertisement relying completely on Premium subscriptions and donations.
It provides two-factor authentication, has an A+ SSL certificate. It was one of the world’s first email services to implement DANE to secure its users against hackers.
Rather than using PGP, Tutanota encrypts email messages with an AES-128 cipher, RSA-2048 handshake, and perfect forward secrecy. Meaning that the system is not interoperable by “regular” PGP users. It is compatible with all devices and is available on iOS, Android, Windows, and even the Amazon App. The services of Tutanota are completely free of charge. It provides its users with one email address and up to 1 GB of data storage space. However, apart from its free services it also provides premium plans that are very affordable.
Mailbox.org Secure Mail Service:
Mailbox is another popular and Secure Mail Service that is based in Germany. It is operated by a group of experienced developers with over 25-year experience. Besides providing email-related services, Mailbox also provides such as Address Book, Calendar, Cloud Storage, etc.
Making it a perfect and secure productivity suite. Mailbox is OpenPGP compatible, allowing its users to send encrypted mail even to non-Mailbox.org recipients. Unlike other mail platforms, the support offered by the team at Mailbox.org is quick, effective, and knowledgeable.
It has features for message and spam filters, virus protection, and even protection against man-in-the-middle attacks. All these features make it a tough competitor and a reliable alternative for Google and its services. Mailbox.org provides a free 30-day trial to test its privacy and security features. It is very affordable, with basic plans starting at only €1 per month and ranging upwards.
In conclusion, all of the above-mentioned mailing services are better options than Gmail. They provide you with much greater security than Google’s mail service. As a result, there is no risk of your data being sold or advertisers bombarding you with the recommended ads. Also using an encrypted mailing service is an essential defense option in this world full of cyber-attacks.
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