Yahoo to offer encrypted email option

Yahoo plans to let its email account holders use data scrambling to protect the privacy of their messages, marking a potentially significant advance for the mainstream use of encryption.

Gartner analyst William Spernow believes that few people who are knowledgeable about information security will allow their sensitive email messages to sit on someone else's email server. see commentary

The Web portal and ZixIt, an encryption company based in Dallas, confirmed that they have inked an agreement to provide encryption to Yahoo Mail users but declined to comment further.

The companies did not disclose a start date for the service. Yahoo Mail began carrying a link to ZixIt's ZixMail page this week but said that link was part of its regular advertising.

When the system launches, it will let Yahoo Mail account holders send messages through ZixIt's SecureDelivery.com site, scrambling messages so only sender and recipient can read them, even if the message is intercepted en route.

ZixIt's SecureDelivery site this quarter will launch software add-ons for use with Lotus Notes and Microsoft's Outlook email application.

The deal will make Yahoo the first major portal to offer encrypted email. So far, data scrambling has been the province of tech-savvy computer users willing to use products that require a software download, such as Network Associates' Pretty Good Privacy.

Yahoo's competition in the free, Web-based encrypted email arena comes from smaller players including Hushmail and ZipLip.

ZipLip, which offers a variety of secure messaging products in addition to its free mail site, said Yahoo's move shows that mainstream encryption's time is coming.

"Yahoo has gotten an understanding that consumers do need more privacy," said ZipLip chief executive Kon Leong. "They are addressing the consumer market, so the timing is right."