Methods to Send a Secure Email in Microsoft Outlook
Read time: 7 minutes
When you want the privacy of your email message protected, encrypt the message. Email messages in Outlook are encrypted when they are converted from plaintext into encrypted cipher text. A recipient only has access to decode a message if their private key matches the public key used to encrypt it. Without a private key, recipients see indecipherable text. There are two encryption options to secure email Outlook:
S/MIME Encryption: The recipient and sender of mail need to use mail applications that support S/MIME encryption. The Microsoft Outlook program supports S/MIME.
Microsoft 365 Message Encryption: Microsoft 365 Message Encryption requires a Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 license, which comes with Microsoft 365 Message Encryption.
Sending Secure Email in Microsoft Outlook
Windows desktop clients can only use encryption if you are a subscriber to Microsoft 365. It is important to add the certificate to the computer’s keychain before starting this procedure. Your computer must first be configured with your signing certificate before you can use it in Outlook.
- Access Outlook and go to the File menu.
- Then, choose Options & tap on the Trust Center. Within the Trust Center option, you now need to click on Trust Center Settings.
- Under the left pane window, choose Email Security.
- Within Encrypted email, select Settings.
- Under the Certificates and Algorithms tab, tap on Choose & click on the S/MIME certificate. Tap on OK.
- Within your email message, select Options and choose Encrypt.
- From the drop-down menu, tap on the Encrypt with S/MIME option.
- You’ll get an Encrypt with S/MIME option if you have successfully installed an S/MIME certificate on your PC.
- Lastly, compose your mail & hit Send.
- Launch Outlook & navigate to the File menu.
- Next, choose Options & click on the Trust Center. Under the Trust Center option, you now have to tap on Trust Center Settings.
- From the left pane window, choose Email Security.
- Within Encrypted email, choose the Encrypt contents & attachments for the outgoing messages check box.
- You can also modify certain additional settings, like using a specific certificate, tap on Settings for any such modifications.
- Firstly, Compose a new mail in Outlook Online.
- Choose Encrypt from the toolbar.
- Tap on Change Permissions if you wish to prevent forwarding of your email.
- Tap on Send when you are done.
- Choose the gear icon & select All Outlook Settings.
- Choose Mail & Tap on Customize Actions.
- Checkmark the box Encrypt.
- Encrypt
- Do Not Forward
- Confidential
- Contoso
- Highly Confidential
Within your email message, select Options and choose the option Permissions.
To encrypt all outgoing messages in the future, simply follow the steps below:
Note: If all your emails are encrypted, all your recipients will need your digital ID in order to decrypt them.
There may be instances when Outlook is not opening in Windows 10 and other OS versions then Outlook Online allows users to send secure emails from Office 365. It is the same as Outlook except for a slight difference in the menu.
In case you cannot find the encrypt button on the toolbar, then you need to tap on the 3 dots above.
Note: Outlook allows users to both encrypt email messages and prevent them from being forwarded. In this way, you can make sure the recipient you want reads the email. Firstly, open Outlook emails in a web browser. The, adding encryption to a new message in Outlook gives you the following options:
Selecting the option Do Not Forward will encrypt the message and prevent it from being forwarded, printed, or copied. Using this method, it is possible to ensure the content of the email is viewed only by the intended recipient.
Once the email has been sent, you can also remove the encryption afterwards. At this point, the recipient will be able to read the message without verification.
- Navigate to Sent items in your Outlook.
- Access the encrypted mail you had sent.
- Choose File & select the option Unrestricted Access within Encrypt.
As we now know how to securely send mails in Outlook, there can be instances when you might be struggling with your opening encrypted & password protected files. Corruption issues, deleted attachments & more. To assist you in your problems, we have come up with a brilliant tool that focuses mainly on repairing encrypted & password protected files and retrieving deleted/lost email attachments. It is the Kernel for Outlook PST Repair tool.
This tool reports searches for PST files in your specified system drive, repairs ANSI & UNICODE formats, PST files of any size, etc. It saves recovered formats from PST to DBX, MBOX, EML, MSG, TXT, HTML, RTF, & MHTML formats. Moreover, you can also export PST to Microsoft 365, email servers, web mails, etc. With smart filtering options and retaining meta properties feature, this tool supports Office 365 Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 & 2019 versions.
Last Words
The prevalence of data breaches is on the rise, and many companies are unprepared to prevent and mitigate them, thereby putting their reputations and finances at risk. Thus, the need for keeping your mails and system secured is a must. With our article, you can easily send your mails in Outlook with encryption via S/MIME Encryption & Microsoft 365 Encryption. Furthermore, in case there are encrypted & password protected files issues, it is advisable to keep Kernel for Outlook PST Tool in your system and solve all your PST file and secure email Outlook problems.
