Manage Encryption Using Thunderbird

A short walk-through of setting up Thunderbird, Enigmail, generating keys and some initial configuration of some basic settings.

Installing Mozilla Thunderbird

Go ahead and download and install Thunderbird if you do not have it installed.

Gnu/Linux users can open the terminal and install Icedove, a fork of Thunderbird. 

sudo apt-get install icedove

Installing the Enigmail Plugin

Once installation is complete, launch Thunderbird, open the menu and select Add-ons. Use the search bar to locate Enigmail then install the plugin.

Generating a Key-Pair

Go to Enigmail in the Thunderbird menu and select Key Management. If you already have keys you can import them by selecting import keys under the File menu. New users will need to generate a new key pair. Select Generate >> New Key Pair from the menu, select the email account you are generating keys for and fill out the necessary info and click the Generate button.

Basic Configuration Settings

Most of the settings will be ready for you to begin using encryption. The one setting I suggest is to always attach your public key to outgoing mail. You can find this under the Thunderbird menu, Preferences >> Account Settings >> OpenPGP Setting >> Avanced and select the appropriate check box.

You should be ready to begin encrypting emails!

Comments