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upstart [soylentnews.org] writes:

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upstart [soylentnews.org] writes in with an IRC submission:

Thunderbird implements PGP crypto feature first requested 21 years ago [theregister.com]:

Mozilla’s mail reader, Thunderbird, has implemented a feature first requested 21 years ago.

The request was for “a plugin for PGP to ede and encrypt PGP crypted” and it appears to have gone un-implemented due to concerns about US laws that bar export of encryption, debate about whether PGP was the right way to do crypto and other matters besides.

Thunderbird eventually chose to use Enigmail and its implementation of OpenPGP public key e-mail encryption, however it is an add-on rather than integrated.

Commenters in the Bugzilla thread [mozilla.org] stemming from the request therefore kept the dream alive.

Then in October 2019, The Thunderbird Blog announced [thunderbird.net] that Thunderbird 78 “will add built-in functionality for email encryption and digital signatures using the OpenPGP standard.”

Thunderbird 78 emerged in July 2020 and late in August Thunderbird contributor Kai Engert (:KaiE:) posted: “We have released support for OpenPGP email in Thunderbird version 78.2.1. Marking fixed.”

Also at Mozilla

In other Mozillan news, the outfit has announced it is killing off a couple of products.

One, the encrypted file-sharing tool “Firefox Send”, “garnered good reach, a loyal audience, and real signs of value throughout its life” according to a Mozilla blog post [mozilla.org]. Unfortunately among those who perceived value were “some abusive users were beginning to use Send to ship malware and conduct spear phishing attacks.”

Mozilla therefore took Send offline and has decided not to re-launch it in line with recent strategic review [theregister.com] that saw the organisation shed a quarter of its staff.

Firefox Notes, an encrypted data sharing tool, has also been shown the door and will cease operations as of November 2020. ®

Get ourTech Resources [theregister.com]

Original Submission