Hi.

I would like to create a new e-mail address but I would like to select a service (i.e. Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.) that is fairly secure. While surfing the web, I came across HushMail.com. They seem to be a faily good when it comes to security. However, while looking around on their website, I noticed that the only way an e-mail message would be encrypted is if the recipent is also a member of HushMail. It also said that even if the recipent was not a HushMail user, I could still digitally sign the e-mail message. What does that mean?

Any comments on HushMail and other alternatives to secure email services are welcome. Also, is anyone familiar with an email service that allows users to download their mail to their hard drive for free; sort of like Hotmail? My goal is to choose a email service that is secure but also allows me to download my messages for free.

Thanks
Tech_Wiz02

The best way to do secure e-mail is with PGP. It's free, strong encryption. You'll be able to use it with any form of e-mail, IM, snail-mail, smoke signals, whatever.

The idea is you make a private key and a public key, then give people your public key. People can use your public key to encrypt messages that require your private key (which only you have) to decrypt.

Hey, thanks for the tip. Where can I download this PGP? I found one site but they charge $50!!!

Good question. I use GPG in Linux so I'm not exactly up on which program to use in Windows. I found this web page with information on the different free and non-free versions of PGP.

I have one more question about PGP software. What does MAPI support mean? I am looking at the products at pgp.com.

Thanks.
Tech_Wiz02