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6. Using the Encrypted Email Feature in Office 365 (E3 Licenses Only)

Office 365 E3 licensees have the added feature of sending encrypted emails to any users through their Web portal or through their Outlook profile.  This guide is to assist you with how to implement this feature so that you can be sure the emails are truly encrypted before sending sensitive data through cyberspace.  This will also show you an example of an encrypted email and how it will look to the recipient when this feature is implemented correctly.  

This feature is incredibly simple to implement.  All you have to enter is @encrypt in the subject line.  

That's it!  

Please keep in mind that the @ symbol is very important to this method being implemented.  The message will not encrypt if the @ symbol is not there.  

How an Encrypted Email will Look to the Recipient

When an email is sent out to a user using the Microsoft Office 365 Encrypted Message feature, the email is encrypted prior to it leaving the sender's Outlook profile or Web portal.  The encryption occurs on the back end, meaning that the sender does not need to do anything once he/she selects the "encrypt" option.

So what will the recipient see when they receive the email?

When an external recipient receives an encrypted message from your organization, they will see an encrypted attachment and an instruction to view the encrypted message.  The email will appear as follows.

 

Unlike other emails, which do not require your validation prior to viewing, Microsoft 365-based encrypted emails require authentication prior to being decrypted.  This authentication uses your Microsoft 365 sign-in credentials, and as such, validates that you are indeed who you say you are.  

When this occurs using the Web portal of Office 365, this validation step will prompt the opening of a new tab within your browser, which will utilize the secure protocols of your browser to download the contents and decrypt the message.

If you wish to reply to the sender, then you may no so knowing that the reply will also be encrypted if you are an E3 licensee.  This is in order to keep the entire email thread encrypted and secure.  

If you have any questions about how this feature works, please don't hesitate to contact us.