Objective
Following these steps will allow you to send encrypted emails from your Spartan Mail account and / or open an encrypted email that was sent to your Spartan Mail account.
Environment
Spartan Mail
Before You Begin
Protecting the data entrusted to the university is the responsibility of everyone at the university. When it is appropriate to share protected, restricted, or limited access data, every effort should be made to provide access using a secure delivery method other than email. When necessary, however, it is possible to encrypt your email message. Encrypting email protects the message from being read by anyone other than the intended recipient.
Before you send an encrypted email, be sure that:
- The information you are sending is appropriate for the recipient(s);
- The message should be encrypted; and
- Other secure delivery options are not preferable.
HIPAA Compliance
This method of encryption is HIPAA-compliant and can be used to send ePHI.
FERPA Compliance
This method of encryption is FERPA-compliant and can be used to send information protected by FERPA.
Steps
How to Send Encrypted Email
- Include the phrase #encrypt or #confidential (not case sensitive) anywhere in the Subject of your message.
- Compose and send the email as you would any other.
- You're done! The email you sent will be encrypted.
This option will work with Outlook Web App (OWA) and any University Email Service supported client.
Because the encryption phrase is in the Subject line and will not automatically be removed, the message will be encrypted in any reply or forward sent from the University E-mail Service.
How to Open Encrypted Email
- When you receive an encrypted email it will look like the example below.
- Open the message and download and/or open the message.html attachment.
- Select the down-arrow next to the attachment and choose Open.
- You will be prompted to Open or Save the attachment. Select Open.
- If prompted to select an application to use to open the file, select the internet browser of your choice.
- To open the message, you can select:
- Sign in and then log in with ANY microsoft account OR
- Use a one-time passcode and use a code that will be sent to your email.
Using Sign In
- Select Sign in.
- If you are an MSU person, we recommend selecting Work or school account so you can open the email in your MSU email.
- If prompted, log in with your MSU email address and password, but Single Sign On (SSO) will likely skip this step if you are logged in to any services already.
- You're done! The encrypted email should now be open in your browser window.
Using a One-Time Passcode
- Select Use a one-time passcode
- Go to your email and find a message from Microsoft Office 365 Message Encryption with subject: Your one-time passcode to view the message.
- Enter the code provided in the email and select Continue.
- You're done! The encrypted email should now be open in your browser window.
Additional Info
N/A