Yahoo encrypts email connections by default

Web services provider Yahoo today announced that its email connections are now encrypted by default.

From now on, all access to Yahoo Mail will be encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS)/Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) with 2048 bit digital certificates, the company's senior vice president of communications products Jeff Bonforte said.

Bonforte said Yahoo Mail will encrypt the standard email protocols such as IMAPv4, POP3 and SMTP and the security will apply to the web and mobile interfaces, covering message content, attachments, calendar items and contacts.

Mobile apps will also be encrypted, Bonforte said.

The encryption plan was announced in October last year, following revelations by former United States National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden that government spies had been tapping network communications between Google, Yahoo and other web providers' data centres.

Reacting to the spy agency's interception of data centre links, Google started encrypting all internal networks in November last year to halt the large-scale wiretapping.

Microsoft has also said it will provide encryption for its web services this year. Office 365 message encryption will be available for purchase in the first quarter of 2014, Microsoft said.