When you need to protect the privacy of an email message, encrypt it. Encrypting an email message in Outlook means it's converted from readable plain text into scrambled cipher text. Only the recipient who has the private key that matches the public key used to encrypt the message can decipher the message for reading.

How does an encrypted email work?

Put simply, end-to-end encryption uses public keys to secure email. The sender encrypts messages using the recipient's public key. The recipient decrypts the message using a private key.

Is it a good idea to encrypt your email?

Encrypting email can significantly lower the chances of a hacker gaining access to the sensitive data within your emails. If they employ a combination of message-level encryption with Transport Layer Security (TLS), users can encrypt both the message and the channel used to send it to the recipient.