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Proofpoint, Inc.

Are replies from the secure mail portal encrypted?

Situation Are message replies sent from an encrypted email encrypted?
Solution See below for an explanation of mail flow of messages from the encryption portal.


Are replies from the Secure mail portal encrypted?

The messages are encrypted up to the point they reach your mail server. So long as your mail server is secure, the messages are safe.

Mail Flow from encryption services

This is a description of mail flow from the replies in the encryption portal. 

Prerequisite: The recipient would have to go through the standard registration process to even see the encrypted email for them: Register for Encrypted Email.

When logged into the secure mail portal, a user replies to the message. 

Secure mail portal

Recipient

Once registered, the recipient of the encrypted email can log in and see a list of emails they were sent encrypted.

Message Expiration

A message only lasts for 15 days, or if the sender expires the message manually from the UI.

Sender

If the Proofpoint Essentials sender has registered themselves to the secure mail portal, they can see the message they sent as well as any correspondence of the message in the UI.

Reply from Portal

Recipient of encrypted email reply

When a recipient replies 2 things happen.

  • The message correspondence to the encrypted email shows in the UI. This is so the user knows they had replied.
  • A reply generates a copy of the message from the secure mail portal directly to the customer's mail server. This message is generated server side, coming from the Proofpoint mail server. All DNS points to us, and we pass along the appropriate DNS information. All message connections are done via TLS to ensure the secure connections between each server, and to the customer mail server. 

Message flow is secure

So from the secure mail portal to the point we pass to the mail server, the reply is secure. 

Please ensure you have secured your mail server to keep it secured.

Cannot stop delivery

Currently, there is no method to stop a copy of the message to be sent to the mail server.