Infomaniak democratises email encryption for all its users, free of charge

Following the launch of my kSuite, its free package designed to offer a sovereign email service and online workspace, the Swiss cloud provider Infomaniak has taken another step forward: email encryption is now available to all its users. This protection can be activated with a single click at the time of sending and works with any email provider, enabling sensitive data sent (research and development, health, finance, etc.) to be protected in full compliance with the FADP and the GDRP – all without technical complexity.

Email encryption for everyone: simple, secure, 100% Swiss

As of today, Infomaniak’s 3 million users can send encrypted emails via the Infomaniak Mail web interface. This additional security is available free of charge to all users, including 100% free my kSuite accounts. These offer a 20 GB email address, 15 GB for documents and photos and an online office suite compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

“We have developed this additional security to meet the growing data protection requirements in sensitive sectors such as research, healthcare, finance and law. ” explains Marc Oehler, CEO of Infomaniak.

Thanks to this new feature, professionals can now share sensitive data such as pay slips, medical documents or banking information in full compliance with Swiss and European data protection requirements.

Robust encryption without complexity

Infomaniak has developed an encryption system based on recognised standards (OpenPGP, ECC, AES-256-GCM), with a sovereign architecture hosted entirely in Switzerland. Encryption is activated in a single click when writing an email.

1. The user writes their message as usual via the Infomaniak Mail web interface (https://ksuite.infomaniak.com/mail). If they wish, they can activate encryption with a single click before sending.
2. The message is first transmitted via a secure HTTPS connection to the Infomaniak servers. At this stage, it is not yet encrypted, but it is already protected against interception.
3. Once received, the content of the message is automatically encrypted by Infomaniak’s servers before being sent, including attachments up to 25 MB. The encrypted message is then sent via SMTP and stored encrypted on the mail servers.
4. For Infomaniak recipients, everything is automatic: once logged in to their account, the user can read the message. The server automatically decrypts the content with a passphrase unique to each mailbox. For external recipients, a password is defined by the sender and sent separately to the recipient, who will be able to read the message via Infomaniak’s secure email interface without needing to have an account.

Unlike end-to-end encryption systems that can lead to loss of access to data, Infomaniak strikes the right balance between robust security and continuity of access. Private keys never leave Infomaniak’s infrastructure. Passphrases that protect keys are never stored in clear text and are only decoded on the fly during an authenticated session. In the event of an unauthorised access attempt, even with the IMAP password of a compromised email address, the content of the encrypted messages remains protected by the two-factor authentication of the Infomaniak account.        

A thriving ecosystem

Infomaniak’s messaging service continues to evolve with the introduction of features that simplify everyday life, such as emoji reactions for responding to emails in a single gesture and a sovereign AI assistant for writing, correcting or rephrasing messages fluently, while fully respecting confidentiality.

As far as kSuite – Infomaniak’s sovereign collaborative suite – is concerned, progress is just as ambitious. Contextual sovereign AI (RAG type) has recently made it possible to translate, summarise and query documents in kDrive. Already in the test phase, the next step will make it possible to query all files in a folder with the aim of extending this capability to all documents belonging to a user, thus facilitating instant access to information.

To facilitate the migration of companies from Microsoft 365, kDrive Pro and kSuite Entreprise now include Microsoft Online – hosted exclusively in Infomaniak’s sovereign infrastructures. This allows teams to continue to collaborate online on Office documents using advanced features in Excel, Word or PowerPoint, while maintaining full control of their data in the heart of Europe.

In the coming months, email encryption will be available on the Infomaniak Mail mobile app. Two important developments are also in the pipeline: the ability to reply to an encrypted email sent to an external provider such as Gmail or Outlook directly from Infomaniak’s secure reading interface, and PGP compatibility with other encrypted email services.