Solutions for securing email communications with OpenPGP.

blog-thumb

If you have improvements or corrections to suggest, you can contribute directly on
Codeberg .

OpenPGP-compatible email clients

Here is a selection of email clients that support OpenPGP, depending on your platform.

Computers (GNU/Linux, Windows, macOS)

Evolution and
Thunderbird are full-featured email clients that allow you to manage emails, contacts, calendars, and tasks.

Thanks to GnuPG, they support OpenPGP encryption to secure communications.

OpenPGP features

  • Email encryption
    Messages can be encrypted using the recipient’s public key, ensuring that only the intended recipient can read them.

  • Decryption
    Received messages are automatically decrypted using your private key.

  • Digital signatures
    Emails can be digitally signed to prove the sender’s identity and ensure message integrity.

  • Signature verification
    Signatures on received messages are verified using the sender’s public key.

  • Key management
    OpenPGP keys can be imported, exported, and managed directly via GnuPG.

Smartphones

K-9 Mail is an open-source email client for Android.
It relies on OpenKeychain for OpenPGP key management and hardware security keys.

Demonstration: Securing an Email with OpenPGP

This demonstration presents the basics of securing emails with OpenPGP:

  • encrypting a message to ensure confidentiality,
  • decrypting a received email,
  • signing a message to prove its authenticity,
  • verifying an email signature.

The demonstration is carried out using
Evolution and GnuPG for key management.

Supported platforms

  • Evolution: Linux/Unix computers.
  • Thunderbird: Linux/Unix, Windows, and macOS.
  • K-9 Mail: Android smartphones.

Use cases

  • Evolution / Thunderbird: personal or professional use on desktop computers, with full-featured email management.
  • K-9 Mail: secure mobile usage, ideal for working on the go.

Conclusion

Evolution, Thunderbird, and K-9 Mail provide reliable OpenPGP support to secure email communications.
Depending on the platform used, GnuPG or OpenKeychain enables encryption, decryption, signing, and verification of messages, ensuring both confidentiality and authenticity of exchanges.