Encrypted Email: Cryptomail

Email, which is the lifeblood of most corporations and people, is very insecure. It can easily be monitored and senders can easily be tracked. In the Cryptomail talk given by Josh Teitelbaum and Peter Leung, an open source solution was offered to solve these problems. The Cryptomail system provides an easy and free way to send encrypted email.

The goal of the Cryptomail project is to make encrypted email easy, secure and widespread. Cryptomail easily passes the "Grandma" test, where a system has to be easy enough for Grandma to use, by offering a nice browser-like interface. Similar to Hotmail, Cryptomail clients can send or receive email through a web browser. This comes in handy in situations where you not allowed install anything on the PC, such as in an Internet Café.

The server portion of Cryptomail runs on top of Sendmail. The client portion is a Java applet that runs in most Internet browsers. The applet is responsible for all the encryption, which is done with El Gamal and Blowfish encryption schemes. The encryption keys (both public and private) are generated by moving the mouse around, thereby defeating any keyboarding logging software/hardware that may be in place.

Josh Teitelbaum demonstrated the Cryptomail system by sending an encrypted email through the web interface. If you are looking for a free and open-sourced encrypted email system, Cryptomail is a good bet. Josh's next big project is Crypmate, which will provide encrypted Instant Messaging.