Yahoo is following Google in creating a secure email system by introducing a new feature that will enable one-click encryption for emails by next year.
Yahoo, one of the largest web providers, is beefing up efforts to offer a secure email system to its millions of users. The latest move is to protect user information from the prying eyes of secret government agencies and hackers. Yahoo's efforts will result in an encrypted email system as early as next year, making it almost impossible to hand over users' messages to a court, the Wall Street Journal reported. The new initiative was announced by Yahoo's Chief Information Officer Alex Stamos at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, Thursday.
Yahoo revealed plans to further enhance user security by adding end-to-end encryption to its email service. With this, users will be able to send confidential emails to other users on Yahoo Mail or Gmail, which will be unidentifiable to anyone other than the sender and the recipient. Yahoo plans to modify end-to-end web plug-in that Google created earlier this summer, making it easier for users to securely communicate from both sides of Google and Yahoo email systems. Yahoo will seek help from its recently hired privacy engineer Yan Zhu from EFF to develop the technology, Forbes revealed.
"We are working to design a key server architecture that allows for automatic discovery of public keys within Yahoo.com and other participating mail providers and to integrate encryption into the normal mail flow," Stamos told iTnews. "It won't be easy, but I think we can design a user experience that makes encrypting messages a one-click option for many people."
Yahoo's latest move follows ongoing efforts from other tech giants trying to protect their systems against government intrusion and hackers. Companies like Google, Microsoft and Facebook encrypted the internal traffic after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed the government's mass surveillance programs.
For a secure platform, Yahoo will rely on a version of PGP or Pretty Good Privacy encryption, which is the most secure form of encryption that hasn't been cracked. Using PGP extension, users will have their own encryption key stored on their laptops, smartphones and tablets instead of tech companies storing the data for the consumers.
Earlier this week, Google revealed its next step to promote web security by giving a ranking benefit to the websites using HTTPS encryption. The initiative is still in its early stages, but the Mountain View, California-based tech giant plans on making HTTPS certification a standard for all websites.
Read more: Google To Rank Secure HTTPS Sites Higher
