Peer Heinlein, CEO of mailbox.org, explains why he thinks OX Guard will help more providers deliver secure PGP email encryption for more users.
When we recently announced that mailbox.org has become the first service provider to use the OX Guard PGP encryption solution, we said that this is the start of a journey that will eventually see PGP achieve mass adoption.
Given that PGP has been around for over 20 years without ever achieving anything of the sort, this may seem like quite a bold claim.
It becomes a much more realistic argument when you consider how limited previous attempts to use PGP were, and in particular how poor the user experience was.
Take the relatively well know plugin solution for browsers Mailvelope. The problem with Mailvelope is that it has real problems with some basic e-mail functionality (such as the handling of mail attachments in a cloud-based file storage setting). It also can’t be used safely with non-trustworthy computers, e. g. in Internet cafes or when you’re on holiday. That’s a pretty basic requirement. Taking all this into account, is it any surprise that most people were put off using it?
OX Guard has helped us to solve all these usability issues, largely due to the server-side implementation, which means any user can generate encryption keys themselves without significant background technical knowledge.
The functionally and clever-thinking behind OX Guard has also helped us to develop a great solution that’s suitable for all levels of knowledge. For example, our more technically advanced users can now upload their own keys into OX Guard and use it in parallel to a local PGP installation. This way they also have secure access to their encrypted communications when they are travelling, even if they use non-trustworthy computers.
Another important factor is that mailbox.org users can share secure email messages and files with parties that do not use PGP, which is something that plugins like Mailvelope historically failed to do. In these instances, we are able to provide temporary encrypted mailboxes on the mailbox.org server. This means that business users such as lawyers or accountants, who are not likely to be IT security experts but have to communicate highly sensitive information, will now be able to easily send compliant and secure communications to their clients.
I’d like to take moment to say how helpful Open-Xchange has been in helping us develop such a useful and practical solution for our end users. Over the last year Open-Xchange has been a tremendously supportive partner in our effort to develop OX Guard in this way. We appreciate how openly and positively they have responded to our suggestions, and also the way they put up with our frequent questions and queries without complaint! We are extremely grateful for all the help and advice, so I’d like to use this opportunity to say a big and public Thank You!