Re:21 years after the request OpenPGP support gets added to ...
by upofadown on Friday September 18, 2020 @08:15AM
(#24515706)
There is an autocrypt plugin for Thunderbird:
* https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/autoc...
Now that most SMTP connections are encrypted with STARTTLS on the wire, autocrypt is not that valuable. At an email server autocrypt can be trivially man in the middled with just a simple script. It ends up being just another encrypted messaging solution that skips the hard but crucial problem of identity.
Added: Autocrypt does not do forward secrecy. Most people want to keep their old emails, so forward secrecy wouldn't add much value:
For reasons unclear to me Thunderbird chose not to go with something like autocrypt.org, but stick with standard PGP and implement parts of their attempt to simplify, which isn't nearly enough to get regular users on board, never mind implement things like forward security, which autocrypt does.
A missed chance from Mozilla, secure email would fit in well with their mission.