ICFJ Knight Fellow Christopher Guess explains how to encrypt emails using Mailvelope.

2. BEGINNING STEPS
1. Go to https://www.mailvelope.com/ and
click the link to install the plugin
2. Approve the installation of the plugin
3. After the plugin is installed, close all
windows and restart your browser. If you
don’t do this the next steps won’t work.
4. We will now create a set of keys for you.

3. CLICK THE MAILVELOPE BUTTON ON THE TOOLBAR.

4. SELECT OPTIONS.

5. SELECT THE “GENERATE KEY.”

6. FILL IN THE
INFORMATION, MAKE
SURE TO CREATE A
VERY STRONG
PASSWORD
(THIS IS A GOOD WAY:
HTTPS://XKCD.COM/9
36/
THEN CLICK “SUBMIT.”

7. WAIT FOR THE PASSWORD TO BE GENERATED. IT MAY
TAKE SOME TIME DEPENDING ON YOUR MACHINE.

8. CLICK ON “DISPLAY KEYS.” THE FIRST ONE SHOULD BE
YOUR NEW KEYS.

9. CLICK “EXPORT” AND THEN “SEND PUBLIC KEY BY EMAIL.”

10. THIS IS YOUR NEW PUBLIC KEY. THIS CAN BE DISTRIBUTED TO
ANYONE YOU WANT TO SEND YOU ENCRYPTED EMAILS. THIS
CANNOT BE USED TO DECRYPT, SO YOU CAN PUT IT OUT ON
THE INTERNET PUBLICALLY WITH NO CONCERNS. YOU CAN
SEND IT AS PLAIN TEXT (MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE ALL THE
TEXT IN THE BOX, INCLUDING THE DASHES) OR AS A FILE.

12. WHEN SOMEONE EMAILS YOU HIS OR HER KEY IT WILL
MOST LIKELY APPEAR LIKE THIS.

13. GO TO MAILVELOPE OPTIONS AND CLICK “IMPORT KEYS.”

14. COPY AND PASTE THE TEXT FULLY FROM THE EMAIL (BE
SURE TO INCLUDE ALL THE DASHES) INTO THE TEXT BOX
AND CLICK “SUBMIT.”

15. IF MAILVELOPE DETECTS A KEY IN AN EMAIL YOU CAN
AUTOMATICALLY IMPORT THE KEY WITHOUT COPYING AND
PASTING. JUST CLICK THE KEY BUTTON IF IT APPEARS OVER
THE EMAIL.

16. WHEN WRITING A NEW EMAIL THIS BUTTON WILL APPEAR.

17. WHEN DONE, CLICK “ENCRYPT.”

18. IN THE BOX THAT POPS UP TYPE YOUR MESSAGE THAT
YOU’D LIKE TO ENCRYPT.

19. IN THIS BOX YOU WILL CHOOSE WHICH OTHER
PERSON’S PUBLIC KEY TO ENCRYPT THE MESSAGE
WITH. YOU CAN CHOOSE MULTIPLE PEOPLE WHO CAN
DECRYPT THE MESSAGE. YOU MAY WISH TO PUT YOUR
OWN NAME IN THERE AS WELL; OTHERWISE YOU WILL
NOT BE ABLE TO READ YOUR OWN EMAIL LATER ON.
THEN CLICK “OK.”

20. THIS WILL THEN SHOW THE ENCRYPTED TEXT. CLICK
“TRANSFER” WHICH WILL COPY AND PASTE THE TEXT
AUTOMATICALLY INTO THE EMAIL YOU’RE CREATING.
MAKE SURE YOU’VE ADDRESSED THE EMAIL
CORRECTLY, ADDED A SUBJECT AND THEN SEND AS
NORMAL.

22. WHEN AN ENCRYPTED EMAIL IS DETECTED,
MAILVELOPE WILL ADD A LETTER ICON OVER THE TEXT.
CLICK IT TO START THE DECRYPTION.

23. TYPE IN THE PASSWORD FOR YOUR PRIVATE KEY THAT
YOU SET DURING THE KEY GENERATION AND PRESS
“OK.”

24. YOU WILL THEN BE ABLE TO READ THE MESSAGE.