Telekom and Fraunhofer unveil 'Volksverschlüsselung'

A new program unveiled in Germany promises full, end-to-end encryption for emails sent by even the most technophobic internet users. Deutsche Telekom and the Fraunhofer research institute collaborated on the software.

German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom unveiled on Wednesday a new internet security project it has developed with the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT). The new program, available for Windows, is called Volksverschlüsselung, or "people's encryption."

The program will allow a user's computer to send encrypted email with minimal set-up and technical know-how.

Encryption gives digital communication a level of security that ensures only the sender and intended recipient are able to view the message. Even if a message passes through multiple servers between the sender and recipient, it cannot be read until it reaches the recipient. Communicating online with encrypted messages is becoming more widespread as hacker attacks are on the rise.

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