Cpanel email encryption protects your email messages from reaching unauthorized recipients. It enhances the privacy and security of your messages by encrypting them using the “public key” and allowing the intended recipient to make them readable (decrypted) via the “Private Key.”
One of the best encryption schemes is the GNU Privacy Guard or GnuPG which is fully supported by the cPanel. GnuPG is publicly-available, open-source software that leverages the public key cryptography scheme. This scheme utilizes two keys; the public and the private key to enrich the security of email with sensitive information. It allows for the execution of OpenPGP or PGP standard which is well-defined by the RFC4880.
This article will help you create email encryption on your cPanel using the GnuPG cryptographic algorithms.
Ready to go? Let’s get started!
Special Note: cPanel is the most popular web panel around and is offered as a standard feature by top web hosting companies.
Step 1: Login to the cPanel
The first thing is to log in to your cPanel account
Step 2: Access the email section
Once you log in, navigate to the email section and click on the Encryption icon under this section.
Once the encryption icon opens, you will have a new interface:
- Enter your name in “your name” text box.
- Enter your Email ID on the “your email” box.
- Type a nickname or comment in the next text box.
- Create your ideal key password in the “key password” text box and confirm the password in the next text box. Ensure your password is strong enough, the “Strength” bar will indicate how strong your password is. If you are unable to create a strong password, click the “password generator” to automatically create an effective password.
- Next enter the time frame for your key.
NB: your password will only be valid in the time stated in the “expiration date” text box. Set the expiration dates as follows: 1y 2w 3d for (1 year 2 weeks and 3days)- Y for years
- w for weeks
- d for days
- Under the “key size” drop-down you have two options 2048 or 4096. Select a key size that works best for you. The larger key size is more secure the key than the smaller one.
- Click “generate Key” to create your key. It may take some minutes to create your key. Be patient!
By now your key is successfully created. Proceed to the next step.
Step 3: Import the key
Once the pair of keys is successfully created and is on your computer, we can now import them to the cPanel.
Note: you cannot import the private key
Click on the “Import Key” button
A new interface will open
In the text box “paste the GPG or PGP data below,” copy your public key.
Make sure your public key includes the header and the footer rows. Scroll down and click on the “Import” button to import the specified key.
By now you have successfully encrypted your email on the cPanel. However, there is one more step to keep you fully equipped.
Step 4: View or delete the key
Navigate down the encryption interface to access the list of activated keys.
To view the public or the private key click the “View” button that corresponds to your key of interest. On the other hand, to delete either of the GnuPG keys click on the “delete GnuPG” button of the key you want to delete. When deleting any key, you will be asked to confirm the task, once you click “yes” the key will be automatically deleted.
That is it!
Conclusion
The public key cryptography technique is one of the best ways to encrypt your email on the cPanel account. It is most commonly used technology for encryption, and once you implement it, you need not worry about the security of your sensitive messages.
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