Email messages can be protected to help preserve content confidentiality. Office 365 offers a service called Office Message Encryption (OME) which you can use to send protected messages. Messages sent via OME can only be read by the recipient and can be configured to disallow forwarding to other users.
WARNING: Care should be taken when sending sensitive information in email. OME is best suited for one time or occasional sharing. You are still responsible for ensuring information is only shared with appropriate parties. If you routinely share sensitive information with an authorized external entity, OME may not be the best solution. Contact your local support or ITS Security for further guidance or if you have any questions.
All versions of Outlook
Using this method will require the recipient to get a passcode or sign in to a Microsoft account to view the email, it does not allow you to block forwarding or printing of the email message
- Include the word "Encrypt: " in the subject line of your email to encrypt the message. Quotations marks are not necessary but do not forget the colon -":"
- Recipient will receive an email with the message:

- Recipient will save the attachment. The easiest way is to download the to your computer.
- The recipient will open the download for direction on opening the encrypted message

Outlook Online Web App (OWA)
The process to send an encrypted message in Outlook Web App (OWA) differs depending on what you see when drafting a new message.
More Options Menu
- From the new message draft window, if you do not see a button labelled "Encrypt" in the menu bar, you need to navigate into the overflow menu. Click the 3-dot icon "...", select "Encrypt" and then choose "Encrypt" or "Do Not Forward".
- If you choose "Encrypt" the message is encrypted. Recipients can share the email and any attachments with any third parties without restriction.
- If you choose "Do Not Forward" the message is encrypted and additional protections prevent the recipients from forwarding the email message to others. Recipients can still reply to your email. Microsoft file format attachments (such as Word documents and Excel spreadsheets) are protected and remain encrypted even if downloaded. Non-Microsoft specific file formats, including PDF documents and image files, are not protected once downloaded and can be shared by the recipient without restriction.
