Tuta unveils post-Quantum cryptography system to protect emails with TutaCrypt

Tuta, the company known for its privacy-centered email and calendar services, has unveiled TutaCrypt, a post-quantum cryptography system for email. Tuta describes TutaCrypt as “the most significant security upgrade of Tuta Mail”, positioning it as the first email provider capable of safeguarding emails from quantum computer attacks. The post-quantum encryption protocol combines quantum-safe algorithms and traditional AES/RSA algorithms, following in the footsteps of Signal, Apple, Proton, and other companies, which have also begun incorporating quantum resistance into their encryption protocols.

Tuta's update replaces the conventional asymmetric cryptography (RSA-2048) with a quantum-safe hybrid encryption protocol, TutaCrypt, as the default for all new Tuta Mail accounts. TutaCrypt merges a post-quantum Key Encapsulation Mechanism (CRYSTALS-Kyber) and an Elliptic-Curve-Diffie-Hellmann key exchange (x25519), as per Tuta's announcement.

With the introduction of TutaCrypt, users are now able to send and receive emails with encryption so robust that even quantum computers cannot crack it. This encryption can be used to send end-to-end encrypted emails to anyone globally, irrespective of their email provider, through a straightforward password exchange.

Let's remind that Tuta has also been developing PQDrive, a post-quantum secure drive and file sharing solution, so this is the next logical step in this post-quantum direction for the company.

New Tuta users only need to update to the latest version of the Tuta apps for post-quantum algorithms to safeguard their emails, calendars, and contacts. The new protocol will gradually be deployed to existing Tuta users as well.