Encryption Laws

[snootalope]

So with the recent laws being passed in MA and NV, I'm curious if others are taking the initiative to get their email encrypted now before their state requires them to.. Also, I believe the law states that any person who sends someone an email in either of those states that match the criteria for encryption, even if their not in one of the those states, still must encrypt the message.

here's just a clip from the description of the law:

"prohibits any business in "STATE" from sending a customer’s personal information through an electronic transmission – except via fax – unless the business uses encryption to ensure the security of the transmission. The law stipulates that email, website and other forms of Internet-based communications that involve the personal information of customers must be encrypted."

My question is, is there an easy way to encrypt everything, rather than making our users encrypt a message themselves, that way there's no confusion? It's been a while since I've messed with this, but I think I remember Outlook can use a secure key or something of the sort to individually encrypt a message. Then, the recipient must have the private key to decrypt the message. yada yada...

I'd like to know if there's an easy way to encrypt everything smtp outgoing? What's the process of decryption on the other end?

I've been googling this for a while, no real definitive answers yet..

thanks!