Encrypt Your Yahoo Mail For Added Security

Email is a great tool for communication, but it is important that it is keep secure if it is to be used as means of sending private or sensitive data. Most webmail service, including Gmail and Outlook.com, have encryption enabled, but it is not the case for all of them.

Earlier in the year, Yahoo made it possible to secure your email using HTTPS so any messages you send are encrypted. On 8 January 2014, the use of HTTPS will become standard, but until then it is down to you to enable the feature for yourself.

Pay a visit to the Yahoo Mail website and sign into your account. Click the gear icon to the upper right hand right of the page and select the Settings option from the menu that appears.

Now move to the Security section and look for the Use SSL option. Tick this box to force Yahoo mail to use an HTTPS connection all of the time. Despite the fact that this is labelled “Make your Yahoo! Mail more secure with SSL (i.e. preventing others from accessing your account at Internet cafes)”, it is a good idea to have it enabled all the time for the best possible security.

Click the Save button at the bottom of Settings and your mail account will be reloaded with a secure connection.

This will become the default option in January, but there’s no need to wait until then to increase your security.