I live overseas - email not secure?

Hello

I live in the country of Mexico and was told that the govt of Mexico recently initiated email interception of foreign citizens (I would be in that category...) who live here.

Is there a defense to this? Hushmail? Etc?

I operate a Windows based PC with yahoo as my email.

Thanks

 

First, stop using Yahoo -- and stay as far away from things like Hushmail as you can possibly get. Trust yourself and no one else.

I am assuming you're a novice, so I start you here with this little overview:

http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_encrypt_email.html

 

Without encryption is any e-mail secure?
I doubt it.
That's my thought when I'm sending e-mail anyway.

 

Theoretically it could be, but not against the mail hoster.

For example: XeroBank, MailVault, and some others host the mail on encrypted servers. If the recipient and sender are in the same system, and you are connected using TLS/SSL, then it never leaves the system and remains encrypted to and from, but you are trusting the integrity of the mail provider.

In HushMail's implementation, they gave users pseudo-implementation of cryptography that they could bug/turn-off if they wanted to.

What you want to do is go download Thunderbird and EnigMail plugin and use GPG encrypted keypairs for asymmetric encryption. That way you are encrypting every message you use no matter how insecure the environment in which you are sending.

 

And please make sure your keys are at least 2,048-bit, if not 4,096. I'd recommend RSA implementation over DSA/El Gamal.