Index: django/conf/global_settings.py
===================================================================
--- django/conf/global_settings.py	(revision 4908)
+++ django/conf/global_settings.py	(working copy)
@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@
 # Optional SMTP authentication information for EMAIL_HOST.
 EMAIL_HOST_USER = ''
 EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = ''
+EMAIL_TLS = False   # encrypt the connection using TLS/SSL?
 
 # List of strings representing installed apps.
 INSTALLED_APPS = ()
Index: django/core/mail.py
===================================================================
--- django/core/mail.py	(revision 4908)
+++ django/core/mail.py	(working copy)
@@ -17,14 +17,14 @@
             val = Header(val, settings.DEFAULT_CHARSET)
         MIMEText.__setitem__(self, name, val)
 
-def send_mail(subject, message, from_email, recipient_list, fail_silently=False, auth_user=settings.EMAIL_HOST_USER, auth_password=settings.EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD):
+def send_mail(subject, message, from_email, recipient_list, fail_silently=False, auth_user=settings.EMAIL_HOST_USER, auth_password=settings.EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD, tls=getattr(settings, 'EMAIL_TLS', False)):
     """
     Easy wrapper for sending a single message to a recipient list. All members
     of the recipient list will see the other recipients in the 'To' field.
     """
-    return send_mass_mail([[subject, message, from_email, recipient_list]], fail_silently, auth_user, auth_password)
+    return send_mass_mail([[subject, message, from_email, recipient_list]], fail_silently, auth_user, auth_password, tls)
 
-def send_mass_mail(datatuple, fail_silently=False, auth_user=settings.EMAIL_HOST_USER, auth_password=settings.EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD):
+def send_mass_mail(datatuple, fail_silently=False, auth_user=settings.EMAIL_HOST_USER, auth_password=settings.EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD, tls=getattr(settings, 'EMAIL_TLS', False)):
     """
     Given a datatuple of (subject, message, from_email, recipient_list), sends
     each message to each recipient list. Returns the number of e-mails sent.
@@ -34,6 +34,9 @@
     """
     try:
         server = smtplib.SMTP(settings.EMAIL_HOST, settings.EMAIL_PORT)
+        if tls:
+            server.starttls()
+            server.ehlo()
         if auth_user and auth_password:
             server.login(auth_user, auth_password)
     except:
