Understanding Secure Email

Question

I've got a question about securing emails with SSL.

If I get an SSL certificate to secure my email, that would mean that the connection between my mail client and my mail server will be encrypted. So anyone listening in couldn't view my emails or username and password. But what happens between the mail server and the destination mail server? And between there and the recipient's mail client? If the reciepient isn't using SSL, will the email and it's contents still be secure?

Also, out of interest, is the danger of people "listening in" just from your internal network (people using packet sniffers) or is there a danger of people out in the cloud listening in?

Thanks,

Michael

Answer 1

This only secures the connection/communication between your mail client and the mail server.

So people on your internal network can't sniff (at least not in clear text) your mail.

How the transport between the mail server from your server to the server of the recipient happens depends on their configuration.

Basically you can't avoid the risk of some mail server operator reading your mail, or the NSA reading it, and so on...

The only thing to secure your mail against a malicious mail server operator would be to encrypt your mail with some Public-key cryptography system (e.g. PGP).