Off-The-Record Messaging Protocol is a custom tailored encryption scheme for instant messaging based on public key encryption. In addition to the standard benefits of Public Key encryption, such as proving your identity, and encrypting your communication, OTR also offers plausible deniability.

The best part of OTR Messaging Protocol is that its not just a white paper: It has support for most open IM clients. This is the standard for Instant Messaging encryption.

If you are worried about your company reading your instant messages, you can use https://meebo.com to send them encrypted.

Click on to see how using Meebo’s HTTPS service can protect you from your local network.

It’s encouraging to see articles in the mainstream press on data encryption. The New York Times ran a Q&A piece recently on how to encrypt USB sticks. This should be something everyone pays attention to considering how easy it is to lose those tiny USB key chain attachments.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/technology/personaltech/05askk.html

Jörn Rönnow has written a comprehensive guide to setting up GPG email encryption in Outlook, Outlook Express, and Eudora. This guide was written a while ago, but will get you started encrypting like a pro!

http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d97jorn/pgp/index.html

Click the subject for more details.

Life Hacker posted instructions on encrypting your Mozilla Thunderbird emails using GPG. This tutorial will get you up and running quickly with Thunderbird. There’s a description of what PGP is which isn’t the best we’ve seen, so this guide might be better for more experienced encryption users who just want to get it working in Thunderbird.

http://lifehacker.com/software/top/how-to-encrypt-your-email-180878.php