Review: Hushmail - Encrypted Webmail
Author: Chris Jones
Published: Ed (April 30, 2014)
Since the inception of email, there has been issues and sensitivity related to its security. Or in
some/many cases, lack of security.
Modern implementation of email is fast and reliable and accessible from almost any location from
any device. But there is still that gray cloud of security paranoia that continues to lurk around.
There are technologies readily available for advanced users to secure their email using PGP and
other methods of encryption. This often requires users to spend hours of setups, configurations and
constant monitoring of different system components, to ensure maximum security and efficiency is
maintained. And it's the same story for both sending and receiving ends of the email transport. Who
has time for all of this? Not many of us, realistically.
This brings is to today's review of Hushmail. We will take a look at the awesome service this
website provides-Encrypted webmail.
Hushmail offers encrypted webmail services for personal use (free) and additionally business users
(paid). The company and service has been around since 1999. During this time, they've earned the
respect of many web security specialists for the service they provide. In short, Hushmail are experts
in their field.
We are taking a look at the free personal use service it offers. The only catch is you must login to
your account at least once every two weeks. As most of us check our email on a daily basis, this
should not be a major problem anyway. But if you only check your email on occasion, keep this in
mind as if you leave it expire past two weeks, you will lose all of your email and contacts with
absolutely no way of getting your account restored.
Features:
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Contact/Address book
Full encrypted email
Email forwarding capability
Secure storage. (It is claimed that Hushmail Administrators themselves have absolutely no
access to its clients messages and data)
Interface
The easy to navigate interface of the webmail is fast to use and very responsive. Encryption service
for email is kept simple with a check box to encrypt the message.
Check to encrypt the message.
Uncheck for unencrypted regular message.
So simple it's stupid (in a good way).
Encrypted message you send between Hushmail accounts are the easiest to use as all that required is
you check the Encryption box. When sending encrypted messages to non-Hushmail users, you must
enter a Question and Answer. Upon attempting to open the email message on the unencrypted end,
the user must correctly answer the question for the message to become readable.
It might sound a little confusing and daunting in theory, but in practice it functions well and is an
absolute breeze to use. It seriously is one of the easiest methods available of sending encrypted
email messages to people.
The classic layout of the entire webmail will make new users feel right at home and will have no
trouble finding their way around.
Conclusion
For fast, completely secure and encrypted email which offers all this for free; there's simply no
better option available than that of what Hushmail offers.