[Essentials] Email Encryption

This article is intended for end-users.

If your company is using the Email Encryption service, your outgoing emails (emails that you send) may be routed to the Proofpoint Essentials encryption service. Depending on how your company has configured this feature:

1. this action may be triggered automatically or
2. it may require you to add an identifier to email you wish to be encrypted.

Both scenarios are explored below.

Automatic Detection

In this scenario, your company scans outgoing email and looks for specific, potentially sensitive content, such as credit cards numbers or banking information. If an outgoing email is found to contain such content, the email is routed to the Proofpoint Essentials encryption service. There the email is stored and email notifications are sent to the recipients to direct them back to the encryption service where they can read and respond to your email. You will also receive a notification informing you that your email has been selected for encryption. If this happens, you do not need to take any action: your email has been sent and recipients will have a chance to respond. You can also reply to responses you receive to your inbox. Replies will also be encrypted.

Manual Detection

Your company may provide you with instructions on how to manually trigger an email to be encrypted. This works in the same way described above, but you will insert a term, likely in the subject line, in any email to be encrypted. Proofpoint Essentials will detect that term and route it your email to the encryption service. For example, you may be instructed to insert the term “[Encrypt]” into the subject line of any email message to be encrypted, before your normal subject. The email will be detected and routed to the encryption service and recipients will be sent notifications. You will receive an email notification informing you that your email has been selected for encryption. All replies will be delivered back to your inbox. Note that the trigger term (i.e., {Encrypt]) is removed from your recipient's email but is re-inserted back into replies to ensure that if you reply to a response, it too will be encrypted.