The Web Encryption Extension
Have you ever missed an "Encrypt this message" button while using an online application?
You don't have to.
The Web Encryption Extension will provide the encrypt button for every web application.
The basic idea behind this software is to help people use encryption who are not very tech-savvy. You may know that encryption is important, but you may also be shy of plunging into such complex matters. The Web Encryption Extension reduces this complexity, so that you can use encryption securely. Any online software that has no encryption button can be extended to provide an easy to use mechanism to encrypt your text input. You will not have to install any additional software on your own computer, because the encryption is done with the standard tool GPG on the server for you.
Obviously, web mail is one of the applications where the encrypt button has been missing in the past. Even security aware users were unable to protect their messages because there was no encrypt button. Fortunately, this has become a thing of the past.
The Web Encryption Extension (WEE) has been released under a GPL license to make sure that as many web applications as possible can use it to provide easy accesible encryption to their users.
Do you want to see how WEE works?
Web Mail
Here is a demonstration of the popular webmail application ROUNDCUBE that has the encrypt button. Log in and see for yourself how encryption works.
You can use the two demonstration keys in the demo with the passphrases "secret" or "kerrylinux" to decrypt messages.
Roundcube is not the only webmail client that can be upgraded with encryption.
Of course, there are many more applications where the encrypt button should be:
- in contact forms
- forums
- business applications (CRM, CMS)
- online shop applications
- and anywhere a user enters confidential information into a web application.
The Contact Form
Many websites offer contact forms that send messages to a business. Why not encrypt the message before sending? In doing so, the contact form becomes the safe channel between the customer and the business. Confidentiality is a must for many businesses today, so why don't they offer it to their customers as a standard?
With the Web Encryption Extension this is no problem at all. Any contact form can be turned into a safe channel with the web encryption extension. See a demonstration here .
