Here are a collection of services that can be used to send end-to-end encrypted emails, messages, or files. Luckily for all of us, it has proven easier to create new encryption algorithms than it has been to create computers powerful enough to break them.

Computers are excellent at the kind of brute-force guess-and-check approach that is often needed to decipher encrypted information. Modern encryption algorithm operate on similar conceptual principles, though the implementation is vastly more complex by necessity.

RELATED: What Is Encryption, and How Does It Work? Encryption methods of that sort have been in use for thousands of years. Of course, that encryption algorithm is quite simple and easy to crack, but you can easily add complexity by shifting the assignment of letters and numbers around, adding nonsensical characters, and other things like that. You can then represent words as strings of numbers, and someone who didn’t know what you’d done wouldn’t be able to read your message! An extremely basic example of encryption is assigning every letter of the alphabet a number - like a = 1, b = 2, c = 3, et cetera. Encryption, at its most basic, involves obfuscating information so that it cannot be read by anyone other than an intended recipient.

Best email encryption software for mac