Best Secure Email Providers. Email:Safety Tips

It's the turn of the mail. Which email service - Gmail, Yandex.Mail, Mail.ru or Yahoo Mail - is the most convenient and secure? To answer this question, we analyzed their functionality and reputation. News about crashes, leaks, phishing - nothing escaped the attention of our specialists.

4th place - Yahoo Mail

The company launched its email service in 1997. Yahoo Mail grew to tens of millions of customers in the early 2000s. By December 2011, 281 million people used mail, which at that time was the third highest number in the world. However, in general, things were not going so smoothly for the company: Yahoo was in long-term stagnation and began negotiating a sale with Verizon.

In 2016, Verizon had a reason to bargain and lower the price. Yahoo Mail suffered two giant leaks in which 1.5 billion accounts were leaked. The amount leaked is not the most amazing thing in this story. What is more surprising is that the leaks occurred in 2013-2014, and users only learned about them in 2016.

Who stole all these arrays, how the invasions took place - all this remained a mystery. What is known is that the incidents are not related. The company blamed hackers for the first leak, which compromised 500 million accounts. "acting with the support of one of the states." In the second - a billion leaked accounts - “ unknown third party". To somehow smooth out the consequences, a guidance page for victims was created. The joint work of PR specialists and technical support helped stop a significant outflow of clients.

Hackers stole from users personal information, hashed passwords, security questions and answers. For several years, criminals have been able to access compromised accounts. In addition, the unreliable Yahoo! Mail was blocked in the US Congress because the service's filters allowed more phishing messages to pass through than the filters of other email services.

Rumors of leaks have brought down the company's price. The initial value of the deal with Verizon was $4.8 billion, but after information about hacking appeared, Yahoo depreciated by $350 million. Although at the turn of the millennium the company was valued at $100 billion.

During a period of particular vulnerability, in 2015, Yahoo Mail acquired two-factor authentication. With this security method, to log into your account you enter additional code, which is sent to the user via SMS message or generated in the application. The desire to stay afloat is also confirmed by participation in the Bug Bounty program, in which Yahoo paid a $14,000 bonus for discovering a vulnerability in ImageMagick that allows stealing graphic files from Email.

Yahoo Mail has some nice features. Such an immense storage of incoming messages - 1TB! - no other mail service has it. The irony is that the gigantic amount of storage reminds us of another gigantic figure: 1.5 billion compromised accounts that the company knew nothing about for 2 years. We give Yahoo Mail 4th place.

3rd place - Mail.ru

Mail.ru appeared a year later than Yahoo, in 1998, and became the first email service with a Russian-language interface. The monthly audience of Mail.ru, according to the marketing research company TNS, is more than 25 million users. Mail.ru Group was often criticized for intrusive distribution additional resources, and their mail - for bad job antispam.

Thus, the Amigo browser was distributed in installation packages of other email products - users did not notice it and agreed to install it. Mail.ru Group also disguised its browser as files from other applications. The hostility was dispersed by the difficult removal of “Amigo” - it was launched in the system background process, who controlled the removal of the software. If you try to remove the browser, it is automatically installed again - you had to change system settings Windows.

In 2014, an open petition was sent to Roskomnadzor, as well as to the management of Mail.ru Group and Yandex, demanding sanctions against companies that create self-installing virus software. Under pressure from user dissatisfaction, the company opened a website for complaints and communication with technical support, but only in 2016.

Mail.ru is the leader in the CIS in terms of the number of clients, which is why spammers of all stripes love it. In the 2000s, email was criticized for its spam filters. Therefore, the company went to war with unwanted messages and even overdid it at some point. In 2014, an entry about magical antispam algorithms appeared on Habrahabr. It turned out that Mail.ru was blacklisting the domains of honest senders.

Back in the 2000s, the company understood that if tons of spam were not stopped, then it could say goodbye to leadership. The first stage of the fight was Kaspersky Antispam paired with the Real-time blackhole list - a list of IP addresses associated with spammers. At first, the number of unwanted emails decreased, but the system was inert and needed an upgrade. Then the company began to develop its own filtering tools - this is how Mail.Ru Anti-Spam Daemon appeared. The system is expanding and becoming more complex, because according to information for 2016, it must check 350 thousand messages per minute.

The compromised Mail.ru passwords did not amount to hundreds of millions, like Yahoo!, but one bad thing happened. September 2014 went down in history as the month of total password leaks for email services, including 4.6 million Mail.ru. It is worth noting that this was not a targeted attack, but the result of a long collection of compromised accounts. The Mail.ru press service reported that more than 95% of accounts “ are limited in sending mail, and we have long recommended that their owners change their password" To prevent criminals from using such databases, two-factor authentication is provided.

The company participates in the Bug Bounty program. Thus, on “Hacker” a case was described when a bug hunter came across a chain of vulnerabilities in Mail.Ru for Android, which led to complete compromise of the contents of the mail and SD card. Thanks to Bug Bounty, hackers will not take advantage of at least one vulnerability - for this we give Mail.Ru a plus.

For problems with spam and the annoying distribution of additional services such as Amigo, we put Mail.Ru in 3rd place. It is worth noting that the company strives for openness and security: it is introducing new filters and has created a service for complaints. However, the shadow of old problems still obscures positive initiatives.

2nd place - Yandex.Mail

Mail.Ru's competitor, Yandex.Mail, is active in the CIS market and abroad. In June 2012, according to ComScore, Yandex email was the fastest growing in Europe. The latest mark on the Yandex.Statistics website indicates that in May 2017 the monthly audience of the service was 24 million people.

The company had its own “Amigo” - the notorious Yandex.Bar. It caused the same problems and irritation as the mail product. Yandex.Bar is an extension that appeared in your browser, and often unexpectedly. After all, it was installed, like Amigo, unnoticed, complete with other software. Removing such a gift was a difficult ordeal for inexperienced users.

Yandex.Mail was featured in a massive leak in September 2014 - 1.26 million compromised passwords were counted. The company’s press service stated that they know about 85% of the accounts from this database: “ We warned their owners and sent them to change their password, but they did not do so. This means that such accounts are most likely abandoned or created by robots».

To protect against those wishing to use compromised passwords, two-factor authentication is provided using Yandex.Key - an application for Android and iOS that generates new one-time passwords. To recognize spam, Yandex.Mail uses the “Spam Defense” service, and Dr.Web checks letters for viruses. The service protocol is secure: with a recent redesign, users have switched to a secure HTTPS connection.

We will include periodic news about failures as a liability mail. In 2015, there was a more than hour-long outage related to internal problems, and mail was unavailable throughout Russia. In December 2016, sending emails suddenly stopped working.

We include concern for the personal time of users as an asset of Yandex. The mail support service has learned to respond within 3 hours. It was possible to speed up the process thanks to a robot that responds to typical questions when you fill out the form.

Yandex participates in a program to find vulnerabilities with the payment of rewards. The size of the reward depends on the service where the vulnerability was discovered. Services are divided into two groups: critical and all others; Yandex.Mail is also critical, where they pay from 5,500 to 17,000 rubles for a bug found.

At the end of May, searches were carried out in the Kiev and Odessa offices of Yandex as part of criminal proceedings opened under Art. 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - High treason. The SBU accuses Yandex of transferring data of Ukrainians to Russian intelligence services. During the searches, investigators established that “ The company’s management illegally collected, accumulated and transferred personal data of Ukrainian citizens to Russia.” The SBU believes that Russian special services used the information received to organize reconnaissance, sabotage and information-subversive operations. to the detriment of Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability".

The accusation of transferring data to special services is a serious stain on the reputation of the mail service, but while the investigation is underway, Yandex’s guilt has not been proven. We state that the mail did not have colossal leaks or problems with spam - and award it second place.

In 2016, Gmail crossed the milestone of over a billion monthly active users. The Google product is targeted by scammers and hackers like no other email service, and 50-70 percent of messages received by Gmail are spam. We have to maintain our brand and introduce new technologies.

Gmail passwords periodically appear in different databases: sometimes together with Yahoo!, sometimes with Mail.ru. In the September 2014 leak, 5 million passwords were compromised - more than all others. To prevent strangers from hacking into your email, Gmail recommends using two-factor authentication, which can be done using a USB token.

Gmail was having trouble filtering out phishing attacks. In 2016, an expert from the consulting company SecureState found that filters for identifying malware Gmail doesn't always work. To prevent the system from noticing a malicious macro in Office documents, it is enough to divide keywords into two parts. And in May 2017, Gmail warned users about a phishing email disguised as Google Docs. The newsletter did not redirect to a fake page, but acted atypically - inside a real service.

Such news darkens the reputation of the service. Although Gmail detects 999 malicious emails out of 1000, one still leaks. So at the end of May 2017, Google launched an early phishing detection system - a machine learning model that selectively delays 0.05 percent of messages for thorough analysis. The new model also uses URL analysis techniques based on reputation and similarity.

The aforementioned May update introduced a tool to prevent data loss: if the user writes a response message outside the company domain, the system displays a warning. The notification does not work for recipients in your contacts list or regular contacts.

Intelligence agencies are interested Gmail users no less than phishers. In March 2016, the company reported that nearly a million email users are potential victims of cyberattacks by government hackers. That's why Gmail sends notifications to users with security instructions. When they tried to hack Pavel Durov, he received a similar warning and

Hello, dear readers of my blog! We are all on personal experience We know that you can’t do without email on the Internet, I’m sure. It is needed for both entertainment and work. Most people have long ago acquired smartphones, and to download some Android applications, you need to log in. With using what? Via email!

Or VKontakte, or on any site - please, just enter your email. Have you found some interesting blog and don’t want to miss anything interesting, then subscribe to the newsletter and receive letters to your inbox - electronic, of course. In general, these days, you can’t live without mail!

But the contents of your mailbox may be of interest not only to you, but also to complete strangers, hackers, for example, and many others. Thanks to this article, you will be able to choose the most secure email, and also learn (or remember) about basic and mandatory security measures. Now, having analyzed the most popular services on the network, we will find out which mailbox is the most reliable.

Mail.ru

At the moment, this platform is inferior in popularity to its rivals Yandex. Mail and Gmail, but still remains one of the most frequently chosen services. Let's see what methods of protection she has.

I would like to clarify right away that you can turn on or turn off all the services described below (some of them are inconvenient for me personally).

First: prohibition of parallel sessions - only one person can use mail at a time. Why might this be inconvenient? Because you yourself can access mail from two or more different devices at the same time, the situations are different.

Second: information is available about last login- date, time, IP address. This feature will definitely not hurt you.

Third: the ability to log into the mailbox from only one IP address - if there is an attempt to log in from another, the user will be directed to authorization. This function is not suitable for me at all, because I use mail on several devices. Yes, and there were cases when I urgently needed to check my email and I logged in from other people’s computers.

Fourth: saving recent actions - you can see information about logging in, sending or deleting a letter, etc. There are no complaints here.

In addition, you can use two-factor authentication - this is a login with confirmation. If you activate this service, then when you log in you will need to enter not only your login and password (you can read about that in another publication), but also various one-time codes that will be sent by SMS to your phone.

Everything seems to be good, but statistics say otherwise - mailboxes mail.ru is hacked more often than others.

Yandex Mail

Now let’s look at another popular service in RuNet from the Yandex search engine.

All letters here are scanned by an antivirus program and if an infected file is detected, the letter will be automatically deleted. Also, Yandex. Mail checks pages for availability malicious code and if the link in the email you receive is suspicious, you will be sent a warning.

There is a useful function “Sign out on all devices”. If you logged into your mailbox from someone else's computer and forgot to log out, it is very useful. It can also be useful if you were hacked, but did not have time to change your password. In this case, change it immediately.

Like the previous mailer, this one has a visit log. It’s better here, because it’s not easy to save here latest actions, and the last 2000 actions, you are unlikely to carry out so many in one day, will take about a week.

In addition, Yandex. The post office marks those letters that it considers fraudulent, which is also a definite plus. You can link an additional mailbox or phone number to your account and, thanks to this, you will be able to recover your password and receive various alerts.

Yandex. Mail is used only HTTPS protocol, which means your personal data is confidential and protected, as it will be sent to the server encrypted.

Gmail

To recover the password, a binding is also used here additional mail and phone numbers. You can also enable two-step authentication to receive a code to enter the mailbox every time.

Gmail uses encryption on transport layer, but its power is not unlimited - not all incoming letters (if the sender uses another service) are encrypted.

Your mailbox displays the latest actions: information about simultaneous sessions - where else you were logged in (you can log out of all sessions by clicking on the corresponding button), there will also be information about the type of access (browsers, devices, etc. from which logged in) and about the IP address.

Helpfully, Gmail sends alerts about suspicious activity.

For example, if someone regularly logs into your inbox from Singapore. To protect your clients from scammers and Google spam applies email authentication - checks whether the email actually came from the person indicated by the sender.

As an addition, it is proposed to enable the “Verified message icon” function - senders will be checked. This function is very useful, but there is one “but” - it only works for a few domains, and not all of them can be checked. I would still recommend connecting it, it certainly won’t hurt.

Thus, for 2017, I would call Gmail the best mailbox. He was able to convince me that I would be protected from hacking, scammers and hackers.

But you must not forget that your safety is in your hands. so that no one can pick it up and use different passwords on sites! If you are afraid that you will forget any of them, you can use the program Roboform . It will remember all your passwords and store them securely; you only need to remember your Roboform login information. Here you can generate a password if your imagination has already run out.

Remember antivirus programs, For example, Eset Nod32 . Regularly scan your computer for infected files.

And of course, be more attentive to the people with whom you correspond on the Internet. Do not report any important information about yourself to a suspicious and unfamiliar person. He may turn out to be a fraud.

If you follow these basic rules, then you are safe! So, now you know which mailbox is best to use and what you need to do to protect your personal data. If you liked this article, recommend it to your friends and subscribe to my public VK . I wish you all the best!

Basic requirements for a good postal service

Safety

Availability of virus protection, confidentiality and data protection

Spam filtering

Availability of effective anti-spam filters.

User-friendly interface

Convenient control panel, attractive design, accessibility and clarity of advanced options.

Box volume

Possibility of long-term storage of a sufficiently large amount of information

Translators and spell checking service

The presence of these functionalities is especially important if you communicate with representatives of other countries or conduct business correspondence

Data backup, file storage, offline work.

These options are important to ensure the safety of your correspondence and received data.

The best mail. 10 most popular free services for receiving and sending mail

Gmail

Google mail service

One of the most stable and reliable postal services

Main features:
Integrated 15 GB cloud file storage (but Gmail shares this with Google Photos, Google Drive and other services that are part of your Google account)
One of the best algorithms for identifying and filtering spam
Stable and reliable 24/7 operation, virtually without failures
Simple but smartly designed interface, convenient search letters, message fragments
All messages are automatically divided into categories, such as “General”, “Advertising”, “Forums”, etc.
Thoughtful protection of the confidentiality of personal information

POP and IMAP standards give Gmail access to any email program and device.
Gmail hosts contextual advertising next to read letters.

Yandex mail service

Comfortable and reliable mail.

Main features:

The service is equipped with an integrated antivirus service from Dr.Web.

Can translate letters from foreign languages into Russian.

Key Features:
unlimited box volume;
panel for managing other mailboxes;
access from any device (tablets, smartphones, laptops);
built-in organizer;
a set of tools for processing letters (design, editing, checking).

Yandex.Mail can function as a full IMAP client.

Mail.ru

Mail.ru mail service

Main features:
good operating speed: the service executes user commands in a split second;
convenient interaction with remote file storage “Cloud”: the capacity of the personal disk can be 100 GB;
convenient labeling of incoming messages;
the presence of a multi-profile operating mode (the ability to simultaneously work with several boxes);
support for sending “heavy” files;
processing of downloaded images (size adjustment, viewing);
grouping messages into threads

Outlook.com

Microsoft mail service

Provides many opportunities, especially for working in Microsoft Office.
A good option for an office worker.
This is a simple service, but in terms of functionality it is not inferior to Gmail.
Main features:
Demon provided paid storage 15 GB (but it is shared between Office and OneCloud and other Microsoft services)
Synchronization with other repositories is provided.
All important messages are automatically selected and collected in one folder.
Invitations and event messages can sync with your calendar.
There's built-in support for Skype, as well as access to Evernote, PayPal, GIPHY, Yelp, Uber, and more.

Outlook.com can also offer you help when composing a letter

Yahoo! Mail

Mail service of Yahoo!

The service interface resembles Gmail, but functionality more modest. But there are relevant additions.
Main features:
There is a convenient filter for messages.
Synchronization with Facebook is provided.
Import contacts from other services, such as Facebook, Gmail, Outlook, etc.
Paid storage of 1 TB is available.
Support for other email accounts that support IMAP or POP standards.
integration with Dropbox cloud storage.

In terms of functionality, Yahoo is inferior to Gmail and Outlook.
At the same time, use Yahoo! very convenient: free form tagging and smart folders, spam cleaning filter works efficiently

Post service Apple

iCloud Mail This is a free email from Apple with extensive storage, IMAP access and interesting functional web application.

With electronic iCloud mail Mail, you can not only access your emails from any of your Apple devices, but you can also manage calendars and contacts and sync information.
If you receive an email, it will be immediately available on all your devices

However, the iCloud.com interface does not offer shortcuts or other functions for productivity or writing organization, and this service does not support access to other electronic service accounts.
There is also no access to POP in iСloud.com.

Zoho Mail

Business-oriented email service

Zoho Mail offers an online office suite, document management and many collaboration tools and other add-ons that will be useful for corporate use.

Main features:
supports up to 25 users simultaneously in one domain
each of them has their own mailbox with 5 GB storage
offers online office packages

Zoho Mail is designed for professional users to help them distribute emails by identifying key messages and contacts and sending templates of frequently used responses.

Rambler.ru

Rambler mail service

A simple and intuitive service for working with mail.
However, the service cannot seriously compete with Gmail, Yandex Mail and Mail.ru.
It is less functional, the security issue remains open, and the settings for serious work with a large volume of correspondence are clearly not enough.
The volume for storing letters is relatively small - the box is intended for individual use and Rambler mail cannot offer anything to corporate clients.

Main advantages
- quick registration and ease of control
- quick image viewing: scroll through photos in one motion
- the ability to collect mail from other services (Mail.ru, Yandex.Mail, Gmail, Qip.ru, Outlook)

Login Rambler mail can be performed through profiles on social networks VKontakte, Facebook, LiveJournal.

Inbox.com

Service developed by the Gmail team

Inbox is "a completely different type of inbox designed to focus on what really matters." (phrase from the official Gmail blog).

Service for the web, as well as mobile applications for Android and iOS, Inbox aims to improve productivity and email organization with several key features.
Sets (bundles) are assembled emails the same topic together, highlight information about key details from messages, and reminders help users monitor when certain information appears.
Inbox will help you keep everything under control and focus on what's important.

For the convenience of users, similar messages are grouped into categories, and the most important messages are displayed immediately. You can postpone any letter until later and create a reminder for each task
With Inbox.com cloud storage, there is no need to delete emails to save space.

AIM Mail

Mail service of AOL (American media conglomerate)

AIM Mail (AOL Instant Messenger) is known as a free email service with unlimited online storage, very good spam protection, and a rich, easy-to-use interface.

AIM Mail has anti-spam protection and robust security features.
The rich interface makes AIM Mail easy to use and integrates calendar, chat and social networks.
AIM Mail offers unlimited online email storage and POP or IMAP access.

There is an AIM panel with full list friends, as well as built-in widgets that show your friends' online presence, as well as shortcut links to popular websites that sponsor AOL Instant Messenger.
However, AIM Mail has a slight productivity disadvantage (no shortcuts, smart folders, and comment text messages, related to the same topic or question), but some of these gaps are filled by very functional IMAP and POP accesses.

The most reliable mail: 4 most reliable mail services

These services can be used as additional services in cases where privacy and security issues are most important to you.

What are the criteria for choosing reliable mail?

Reliability is determined by the following factors:
1. Protection of mail from hacking and interception by third parties.
2. Confidentiality - protecting information from the developers themselves.
3. Refusal of developers to cooperate with intelligence agencies.

ProtonMail

Secure mail from Switzerland

The company has extensive experience and a strong reputation for providing a secure platform to users, especially journalists who are interested in a high level of privacy.

Technologies used
End-to-end encryption
Messages are stored on ProtonMail servers in an encrypted format. They are also transmitted in encrypted format between servers and user devices.
Encrypted user data is inaccessible to the service administration
Data is encrypted on the client side using an encryption key to which the administration does not have access. (For this reason, the service cannot perform data recovery if, for example, you have forgotten your password).
Time-tested and reliable encryption algorithms
Only secure implementations of AES, RSA, and OpenPGP are used.
In addition, all cryptographic libraries used are open source. Using open source libraries source code, ensures that the encryption algorithms the service uses do not have hidden built-in features.

The company offers free VPN service Proton VPN for Android platforms, iOS, MacOS and Windows to combat Internet censorship, allowing you to bypass restrictions and gain access to blocked sites.

ProtonMail also provides the world's first encrypted contact manager "ProtonMail Contacts", which aims to protect user data with encryption and digital signature features.

Mailfence

Email encryption service from Belgium

Secure postal service from Switzerland

CoutnerMail provides end-to-end encryption, making it impossible for hackers to read your email.
The service has more than 4,000 types of encryption keys.

The company does not store email data on the server or hard drives. This means that attackers will not be able to track emails, so data leakage is out of the question.
CounterMail also guarantees protection from government data surveillance.

Additional features of CounterMail:
Comprehensive security
Diskless web servers
USB Key Option
Defence from MITM attacks(man in the middle)
Applications for Android and iOS

Tutanota

Secure mail from Germany

Tutanota provides end-to-end encrypted open source email and provides a freemium-based secure email service that is designed to protect user communications.
Because Tutanota is based on an open source model, its development is faster than many other similar services.

Additional features of Tutanota:
End-to-end encryption
Open source
Applications for Android and iOS
Users can send and receive encrypted messages from regular email users

By email we share personal secrets, conduct business negotiations, and do many other things. But most emails are sent in plain text and are stored in a format that is easy to read. Services with encryption have a higher level of confidentiality. Your letters will be encrypted both during transmission and on the server, and no one except you and the recipient(s) will be able to read them.

Which mail is the best and safest?

Encrypted email clients come in different types. Some work entirely in the browser, while others are desktop application, still others connect to existing mail and create an additional level of security in it. Let's figure out which email is the most secure.

Hushmail is one of the most famous encrypted email services. Here your mail is stored in encrypted form and is only decrypted when you log in with your password. Between accounts within Hushmail, mail is decrypted and encrypted automatically. When sending a letter to another mailer, you can use a security question that the recipient must answer to decrypt the letter.

By clicking on the link, the recipient must answer the question, and if the answer is correct, the letter will open.

But it is worth noting one detail. In 2007, Hushmail released correspondence from three mail accounts By the tribunal's decision. How did he do this if all mail is encrypted? The fact is that the system captures user passwords. In a candid interview with Wired, Hushmail CTO Brian Smith said: “Hushmail helps you avoid conventional government surveillance like Carnivore and protects against hackers, but it's not suitable for protecting data if you're involved in criminal activity and have a warrant against you.” Canadian court." So it definitely can’t be considered the most secure email.

Some people don’t use Hushmail precisely because of this, but we note that any other service can, under pressure from the outside, one day change its system so as to capture your encryption key. The only solution in in this case– Enigmail or similar do-it-yourself program. But even with such programs, authorities in most countries can still force you to give up the encryption key.

VaultletMail, part of the VaultletSuite, is a desktop program rather than a browser-based one. If two users use VaultletMail, messages between them are always fully encrypted. If you want to send a letter to another postal service, you can use the SpecialDelivery system.

With SpecialDelivery, you can create a secure passphrase that your recipient will use to decrypt all messages they receive from you through VaultletMail.

What additional features does VaultletMail have?

VaultletMail has a lot of features. It protects the recipient from forwarding, copying, printing and quoting letters. You can set the time after which your message will self-destruct in the recipient's VaultletMail. You can even send letters from anonymous addresses, thereby allowing you to avoid recognizing that they were sent.

Enigmail is free extension For Mozilla Thunderbird. There are similar plugins for other popular email programs. To work with Enigmail, you need to install the appropriate extension in Thunderbird and the GNU Privacy Guard program in the operating system.

After installing Enigmail in Thunderbird, a new OpenPGP menu will appear with a setup wizard. This wizard will walk you through the setup process, including creating or importing a public and private key.

By default, messages are signed only digital signature, thanks to which the recipient will be able to determine that the letter came from you. To enable encryption, you need to select the “Encrypt This Message” option in the S/MIME section of the letter writing window.

What are the disadvantages of this mail extension?

To correspond with other people, you need to exchange keys with them, so the setup procedure is somewhat complicated. Unfortunately, this always happens when working with encrypted mail. But there is one advantage: Enigmail can be used in combination with other email services, such as Gmail. There is no need to create a new account. Using FireGPG, a popular extension for Firefox, this could be done directly in the browser, but this extension is no longer supported and is no longer compatible with Gmail.

Will Yandex and Gmail help answer the question of which email is the most secure?

How much standard services Are emails secure? Many people ask this question, so let's answer it by starting short review from the Russian service.

Over time, the Russian postal service has acquired sufficient regular users security services. For example, Yandex identifies phishing emails on the fly, allows you to set up two-factor authentication, and can also enable special passwords for third party applications.

Naturally, there is also a log of visits, the ability to set white IP addresses for login and much more. But Yandex doesn’t know how to encrypt correspondence, which means it won’t be possible to call its mail the most secure.

The protection capabilities of the American postal service are, of course, wider than those of the Russian one. It all starts with two-step (not two-factor) authentication, adding allowed programs (not just IP addresses) to access, and flexible setup access modes of sites and applications.

However, Gmail does not have phishing alerts and, like Yandex, does not have the ability to encrypt correspondence.

Conclusion

There is another option on how to make the most secure mail on the Internet yourself: using special encryption programs, you just need to encrypt messages and send them by regular mail as attached files, which the recipient must then decrypt.

Of course, encryption helps protect your privacy, but it's not a universal solution to government encroachment and won't give you the most secure email on the Internet. Neither Hushmail nor Enigmail's own encryption will help here. Often codes and passwords are obtained not by hacking, but by knocking them out of the owner in one way or another. And encryption in this case, alas, is powerless.

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Which mail is the best and safest? Today it is simply impossible to be negligent about the security of data transmission, especially if we're talking about about confidential personal or professional information. Your email can be hacked, but the risks can be minimized if you know how to correctly create passwords and use reliable services. Which mail is the most reliable and secure? Let's look at several email services, taking into account their features, advantages and disadvantages, and also talk about security rules that will protect your data from theft.

The most secure mail: rating

Let's move on to consider specific mail clients. What is the most secure email on the Internet? It is quite difficult to compile a rating, because common services are usually not well protected from hacking. The most reliable are foreign services; users especially highlight Swiss and German email clients. If you choose between popular and Russian-language options (Yandex.Mail, Mail.ru, Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo), then it is better to choose Gmail, but even there the encryption is far from ideal. Therefore, you additionally need to think about the security of your email password.

The most secure mail, according to many users from all over the world, is the Swiss service Proton Mail. However, when registering, confirmation is required from a phone number or a spare email address. The developers assure that they will not save this data, but you should be on the safe side by using virtual number or other email where you do not need to provide such data when registering. Next in the ranking are Mailfence, ConterMail, Tutanota, Posteo, VauletMail, and so on.

Common Mail.ru and Yandex.Mail

It is not advisable to use Mail.ru and Yandex.Mail for work correspondence and receiving/sending important documents, but as personal mail These services are quite suitable. You can use these email clients to read news and mailings, but do not link to them electronic wallets(except for Yandex. Money), websites and hosting. These services are not included in the ranking of the safest email services at all.

Gmail: The Most Popular Email

Of the “regular” (that is, common and popular on the Russian-speaking Internet) email clients, the most secure is Gmail. There is an account link to a phone number, and also two-factor authentication. If you try to access your mail from a different geographic address or even from a different browser, then even after entering the password correctly, you will need to confirm your identity and rights to use the email address from the phone that was linked to your account during registration. At the moment, Gmail is called the most secure email even by many programmers.

Minor failures with authentication can sometimes occur, but the client is completely free, so users shouldn’t complain about it. In some cases, the code does not immediately arrive in the SMS message, but then it does voice call. You need to answer and listen to the code that the computer “tells”. The mailer is also quite good at skipping spam. Of course, the protection is not 100%, but if you mark a letter as spam once, the mailbox will automatically learn and in the future will send all messages from this recipient or with similar content to the appropriate folder. But in order not to miss an important letter, for example, an invitation to a webinar or useful free materials, it is worth adding the sender to White list and check your Spam folder from time to time.

Yahoo and Outlook Cooperation with the NSA

Email services such as Mail.ru, Yandex.Mail, Outlook, Yahoo and Gmail are relatively safe, but do not protect the privacy of their users well. It’s difficult to call these services the safest email services on the Internet. Yahoo, for example, has developed special software that allows the National Security Agency to secretly check the correspondence of individual users. Google admitted during the trial that it reads emails, and things are even worse with Microsoft. As part of the PRISM project, the corporation helped the NSA monitor users of Skype, Hotmail and Outlook.

Proton Mail: secure mail from Switzerland

The service was developed in 2013 in Switzerland by Proton Technologies; all servers are located there, which means that user data is protected by national laws. The idea belongs to Koltech and Harvard student Andy Yen. Swiss privacy is about ensuring maximum data security and neutrality towards users. The development company has extensive experience and has earned good name, journalists interested in a high level of confidentiality especially like this most secure mail.

The mailer is designed with double encryption of user messages. All emails are encrypted and only the recipient has access codes. This means that the information will not fall into the hands of third parties. Proton is anonymous mail. To create an account, you need to enter personal data, but the service does not save it. Additionally, developers do not store any IP log records that may be associated with the recording. At the same time, no one complained about the data transfer speed. The service's developers claim that Proton will always be free. But those who wish can support the project with a voluntary donation or upgrade to a paid account. There are practically no differences between free and paid accounts. Mail works well and meets user expectations in any case.

Proton can be used on any device without the need to install additional software, but you must stable connection to the Internet. Accounts Compatible with other email clients. A nice bonus is a well-designed modern design and special optimization For high performance. Externally, the mail is somewhat reminiscent of Gmail, but it still looks very stylish and fresh. Reading, organizing and sending letters with Proton is very convenient, and Russian-speaking users can also use Russian-language interface, which makes the client even easier to use.

Secure Email Mailfence

Which mail is the best and safest? The Mailfence service appeared in 2013 after the story about Edward Snowden and the NSA, which caused widespread public outcry. Open encryption based on OpenPGP technology. This ensures that sent emails will not be read by anyone other than the sender or recipient of the message. In addition, thanks to IMAP or SMTP technologies, the user can access the account through any convenient email client.

The service works without advertising, you can connect Mailfence is fully compatible with OpenPGP, and also offers its users Newest technologies anti-spam protection and sender blacklist. There is an integrated key storage. The only drawback for Russian-speaking users is the lack of a Russian-language interface.

Secure Swiss service CounterMail

What is the most secure email on the Internet? The Swiss service CounterMail also (like the previous two email clients) provides double encryption, which makes it impossible for third parties to access messages. The developers used more than 4 thousand types of keys to protect user data. The data is not stored on hard drives or servers, which means that attackers cannot monitor emails, meaning there is no leakage of confidential information.

CounterMail provides protection from government interference in your privacy. But one of the disadvantages of the email client is that encrypted emails cannot be sent to other users, but you can communicate with anyone who has an OpenPGP-compatible email. There is no Russian interface. But there is a USB key option, applications for Android and Apple, and MITM protection.

Tutanota with end-to-end encryption

Which email is the most secure? Tutanota mail from German developers encrypts emails with open source code. Security is based on Freemium technology, which protects user correspondence. The development of the email client is happening faster than other services of this kind. The company offers and paid accounts for users. Currently, the mail service has more than two million active users.

Encrypted email service Posteo

What is the most secure email? Posteo is an encrypted email service in German. Postage is paid for basic package you need to pay one euro per month. This option enables access to POP3 and IMAP support. When registering you do not need to provide personal information, so that the level of confidentiality and personal security remains at a sufficient level. There are no ads, you can use mail on all devices. There's also a notes and calendar feature that integrates with other clients, attachments up to 50MB are supported, and 2GB of email storage is available initially but can be increased.

Desktop program VauletMail

Which mail is the most reliable and secure? Desktop program VauletMail encrypts user emails, but using SpecialDelivery technology you can send messages to users of other email clients. VauletMail has many features. You can set the time when the letter will self-destruct or send messages from anonymous addresses. True, theoretically, a program installed on a PC, rather than a browser version, is more vulnerable if the computer is lost or becomes inoperable.

Enigmail plugin for email programs

Enigmail is an extension for "Mazila". There are similar plugins for other accounts. To get started, you need to install the corresponding extension in Thunderbird; you will also need the GNU Privacy Guard program for operating system. After installation is complete, a new menu with a setup wizard (OpenPGP) will appear in the extension.

With the help of the wizard, the setup process will be easy and fast. During setup, the user will create or import a public and private keys to ensure the security of correspondence. By default, messages are only signed electronic signature, so that the recipient can identify the sender. To enable encryption, you need to select Encrypt This Message when writing a letter in the S\MIME section.

The setup procedure can be difficult because to start communication you need to exchange keys with the user. You can use the plugin in combination with other email services. Previously, it was possible to combine mail with Gmail, but now such a combination is no longer available to users.

Safe work rules

The most secure mail will cease to be so if you do not follow the rules safe work in the Internet. To maintain confidentiality for especially important letters, it is advisable to choose mail programs where personal data (telephone, other existing mailboxes) is not indicated during registration. Many users choose to work through Tor browser, but, for example, in the case of Yandex.Mail this is irrelevant, because you will constantly have to deal with errors, and some letters will not be sent at all.

How to choose a complex password?

The most secure email can be regular Gmail, if you choose a very simple and interesting way- use a children's rhyme as a basis. It’s better to choose something less common. The password will consist of the first letters of each word (for example: turtle, the first letter is "h", corresponds to "x" on English layout, that is, the password symbol is the letter “x” and so on). If the letter is the first in a sentence, write it in uppercase. Replace some letters with numbers similar in spelling (“o” to 0). Don't forget about punctuation marks - periods, commas, exclamation and question marks, dashes and colons can also be entered into the password.

Using the same scheme, you can create a password from your favorite saying or aphorism, a memorable phrase from thinkers or movie characters. To make your life a little more difficult, you can replace letters with numbers other than those they resemble (for example, “h” is not 4, but 8, and so on). For the password, you can use a complex medical definition or a hospital discharge. Is the term too long? You can simply throw out every other vowel and write some consonants in upper case. The main thing is that you should not use password generators, because attackers use similar technologies, generating combinations for hacking an account.