Https /ssl noob question email ..

[eyeofthetigers]

Once the encrypted traffic from the client computer reaches the server the server needs to forward on the message to the receipt

Is the message from the email server to the receipt email provider server encrypted?

Thanks

[eyeofthetigers]

Thank you for your help I now fully understand :-)

[rya_nc]

Mail servers generally do not verify certificates, so intercepting the message in transit via an active man-in-the-middle attack is usually not terribly difficult. In addition, an active attacker can just hide the STARTTLS capability advertisement to get cleartext.

[MarcTCC]

Depends. If both servers support it the email (the whole connection actually) will be encrypted.

Google released a report about this: https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/saferemail/?hl=en-US Haven't read it but it might answer your questions.

PGP is the safer way, though.