Category: Security

The Power or Email Aliases: Enhancing Your Email Experience

Disclaimer: TSB directly benefits from this referral link to Proton Mail, the mail provider we use.

Email aliases are a versatile tool that can help you manage your inbox more effectively, keep your personal and professional life separate, and even enhance your online security. Whether you’re using ProtonMail, GMail, or another email service, email aliases can be a valuable addition to your email management strategy. We explore the benefits of using email aliases and provide a quick guide on how to create and use them in ProtonMail and GMail.

Organization and Separation:

One of the most significant benefits of using email aliases is the ability to keep your inbox organized. By creating separate aliases for different purposes, you can easily categorize your emails and quickly identify their purpose. For example, you can create an alias for work-related emails, another for personal emails, and another for online subscriptions. This way, you can easily filter and sort your emails, making it easier to find important messages and keep your inbox clutter-free.

Privacy and Security:

Email aliases can also help protect your privacy and enhance your online security. By using a unique alias for each online account or service, you can prevent your primary email address from being exposed to potential spammers or hackers. If one of your aliases gets compromised, you can simply delete it and create a new one without affecting your primary email address. This way, you can maintain your online security without having to change your primary email address.  A service like ProtonMail has a blind alias service, allowing you to make an email address that only you know is an alias.

Eliminate Multiple Email Accounts

Another advantage of using email aliases is that you can create multiple email accounts without having to remember multiple usernames and passwords. By using a different alias for each account, you can access all your email accounts using a single login. This can be particularly useful if you have separate accounts for work, personal, and other purposes.

Customization and Branding:

Email aliases can also be used to customize your email address and enhance your personal or professional branding. For example, if you’re a freelancer or small business owner, you can create an alias that includes your business name or a keyword related to your services. This can help you establish a professional image and make it easier for clients to remember your email address.

How to Create and Use Email Aliases in ProtonMail:

ProtonMail offers various methods to create aliases. You can either establish a new, private identity email address that acts as an alias for your Proton account, or you can generate them spontaneously by appending a “+” symbol followed by a word. Here are all the techniques to create an alias in ProtonMail. If you wish to automatically categorize your incoming emails by aliases, create a folder for each alias and then set up a filter to direct that mail into the respective folder.

How to Create and Use Email Aliases in GMAIL:

Gmail’s alias feature is primarily designed to help filter and organize incoming emails, rather than providing an alternate email address for sending messages. When you create an alias, you can use it to categorize and filter incoming messages, making it easier to manage your inbox. However, it does not allow you to send emails from the alias address itself. For that purpose, you would still need to use an additional primary Gmail (or other provider) address.

To create an alias, simply append a plus sign (+) followed by a word or phrase to your primary email address. For example, if your primary email address is “example@gmail.com,” you can create an alias by adding a plus sign and a word, such as “example+work@gmail.com.” This alias can be utilized when signing up for websites or services.  IT will automatically route to your GMail inbox.  You don’t have to preconfigure it in the BMail interface – give it a try!

The alias creation process in Gmail is automated, allowing for the easy generation of unique aliases for various purposes. To further organize your emails, you can set up a filter for the new alias. If you apply a label at the time of creating the filter, you can ensure that your emails are automatically sorted and labeled according to the alias, making it easier to manage and find specific messages.

Protect your communications with email encryption that is private by default.

Disclaimer: TSB directly benefits from this referral link to Proton Mail, the mail provider we use.

Today, most email is already encrypted at least server-to-server.  So while this is more secure than in the past, it’s not the most security you could have for sensitive information.  What you may want to consider is end-to-end encryption. Here’s a breakdown of the difference:

Server-to-Server Encryption encrypts email while it’s being transmitted between your email client and the email server, but not on the recipient’s end.  Imagine a locked box (encryption) carrying your email from your provider’s server to your recipient’s provider’s server. Only the servers have the key to open the box.  The email remains unencrypted on the servers and could be accessed by the providers if they choose.

End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) encrypts email from your device to the recipient’s device. Only the sender and recipient have the keys to decrypt and read the message.  In our analogy, consider it a locked box picked up from your device and delivered directly to your recipient’s device – to which only you and the recipient has the key to open.  In this case, the email providers cannot open the emails without the keys.

So WHY would you want to use E2EE and not Server-to-Server?  We trust the email providers so why would we care?  Here are some topics to consider:

• Hackers will have a more difficult time extracting information from a compromised computer if the emails that reside on it’s hard disk are encrypted.  They would need the data and the keys to open them.  The less about you a hacker can learn from your email, the more protected you’ll be.
• In the case of legal actions, your email provider cannot breach your rights to privacy in communication. Though they can provide metadata like how frequently communications were exchanged and some header information about where emails came from and went to.
• Sharing sensitive information – like medical or financial information with loved ones.

So why are we recommending Proton Mail?  Proton is a company that’s mission is about privacy of information.  They are making moves to ensure that 51% controlling interest in the company is maintained by a not-for-profit group to keep it’s mission for accessible security and privacy to it’s customers.  They make E2EE easy and go out of their way to protect your information as well.  Even if people emailing you are only using Server-to-Server (or no) encryption, Proton Mail has a process where they will automatically encrypt it and destroy their access to it as it gets to your mailbox. Additionally they offer business plans as well to host your own domains, like we use.

Here is a brief 2 min read explaining how Proton Mail encrypts email.