A system, method, and computer program product for providing a encrypted email reader and responder is described. The method of distributing and initializing an encrypted electronic mail (email) software application for exchanging secure email, can include: obtaining by a first user a license for an email client software application program having public/private encryption; requesting by the first user that a second user download a reader/responder software application program in order to exchange encrypted email between the first user and the second user; downloading and installing the reader/responder software application program by the second user; sending an email by the second user to the first user including embedding an unencrypted public key by using a send key function of the reader/responder software application program; receiving the email from the second user by the first user, wherein the unencrypted public key is embedded in the email; responding by the first user by sending a second email to the first user, where the reader/responder software application program encrypts a message of the second email into an encrypted message using the unencrypted public key of the second user; receiving the second email by the second user with the encrypted message as an attachment from the first user into a third party email software application program, wherein the third party email software application program is different from the reader/responder software application program and the email client software application program; and opening by the second user the attachment to execute the reader/responder software application program operative to allow a user without the email client software to read and respond to encrypted email created and sent from a user having the email client software.