Do you want to know how to encrypt an Outlook email? Outlook email encryption makes sure that any email you send with Microsoft’s email client is encrypted before it leaves your computer. In this guide, we’ll explain how to encrypt email in Outlook and why you might want to do so, whether you’re using it for business or for personal reasons. In email terms, encryption is the process of making your digital messages and attachments unreadable to people who shouldn’t be able to read them. It has to be done because of how emails get from the sender to the receiver.
A normal email goes through several network and web application servers. This means that a hacker or other bad person could get into your communication at any point along the way. If you need to send an email in Outlook that contains sensitive information, you may want to encrypt it. Emails sent from Outlook or Office 365 that are encrypted can only be read by the person who has the private key. This keeps other people from seeing what is in the email. It can also keep your email from being sent to other people. We mentioned below are the steps how to encrypt an Outlook email.
How to Encrypt Emails in MS Outlook
- Launch Microsoft Outlook and compose a new email message.
- In the new email window, click on the “Options” tab at the top of the ribbon.
- Within the Options tab, you should see a section called “Permissions.” Click on the “Encrypt” button within that section.
- A drop-down menu will appear. Choose the option that says “Encrypt-Only.” This option ensures that the email contents are encrypted, but the recipient can still read it without any additional software or plugins.
- After selecting “Encrypt-Only,” finish composing your email by adding the recipient(s), subject, and the message body.
- Once you’re ready to send the encrypted email, click the “Send” button.
- Outlook will encrypt the email using the recipient’s digital ID or certificate. If the recipient does not have a digital ID or certificate, Outlook will prompt you to send the email unencrypted or to obtain a certificate for the recipient.
- If you choose to send the email unencrypted, it will be sent like any regular email without encryption.
What is Outlook email encryption?
Encryption is a way to keep information safe while it is at rest or on its way to a certain place. When you use Outlook to encrypt an email, you tell the app to encode the email’s contents (the body and any attachments) and only let the recipient(s) see it if they know how to decode it (authentication). Email encryption makes sure that only the people the sender wants to read the message (the recipients) can read it. If you want to know more information about this Visit Official Microsoft Outlook Support site.
Think of it like sending mail with a signature. When we send and receive encrypted email, we use a kind of digital ID on both ends. When you encrypt a message, you turn the “plain text” of what you type into a bunch of 0s and 1s that can’t be read. When you send emails in clear text, which means they are not encrypted, anyone who gets a hold of them can read everything in them. But if the email is encrypted, only people who know how to decrypt it can read it.
