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Proton Mail introduces post-quantum encryption | Proton (proton.me)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/privacy@programming.dev
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Proton Mail now supports post-quantum encryption, helping protect new encrypted emails against future quantum threats.

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[–] 7 points 6 months ago (9 children)

Can someone explain what the point is when the email contents are all read by the sender? Everything is already in a database somewhere.

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  • [–] 15 points 6 months ago* (4 children)

    Well, if the other person uses protonmail, your client encrypts the email content before submitting it, which means protonmail can't read it.

    If they do not use protonmail, well, protonmail can. They apparently store the emails after they have been sent encrypted with a key in your account, so they can't read them afterwards.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    About 99% of the world doesn't use protonmail. What good does it do if your email is stored unecryptes in the recipient's imbox over on gmail, apple mail, copilot 360, yahoo, yandex, or whatever else?

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  • [–] 6 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    I can encrypt a message with your public key, and only you can decrypt it. The db will store the encrypted version.

    For example.

    This is not necessarily what/why they do it, just one example of how asymmetric ciphers can be useful in an email scenario.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Just about nobody uses that. Your bank, your online store, your doctor, the state, and about everybody except Alice and Bob send you unencrypted mail.

    Encrypting your email once received is like storing your postcards in a safe.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    It was just an example. Maybe you have your private key locally to access your email, so that if there is a security breach it's impossible for them to release unencrypted emails?

    I mean I don't know why, but there are loads of good examples of why someone would.

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