There's a lot of good software out there that lets you encrypt messages so that you can do things like IM and send email without having to worry about it being seen by prying eyes. But some of this software costs money, some is hard to use. There's an easy free way to encrypt messages that requires no software. It's a website where you put in your message and the key and you can then encrypt or decrypt the message (depending on which end of the conversation you are on). It's a simple free and fast way to use encryption with people you know.