SecureEmail free for non-commercial use

Prudent personal computer users do not entrust their private information to non-encrypted email. It is easy for a mildly-talented hacker to intercept email messages. If email messages include confidences about union negotiations, or personal financial information, the result could be more than embarrassing. It could be catastrophic.

Until now, alternatives to non-encrypted email have either been slower than email, for example, sending information by US Mail. Or they have been more expensive or cumbersome, or both, for example, email encryption software.

Now Comodo offers SecureEmail free to non-commercial users. With this software, Internet users can easily install encryption software that makes their emails unintelligible to anyone but the intended recipients. Whereas previous software required people exchanging encrypted emails to first exchange “digital certificates,” Comodo’s patent-pending technology enables recipients to claim a one-time-use digital certificate in order to read the message.

Digital certificates are electronic documents that may be installed on users computers. They are difficult to forge, since they are issued by official entities known as certificate authorities. When the recipient opens the encrypted message, he or she can decide whether to use the free single-use certificate, or to save a free certificate on his or her computer for future secure emails.