Secure protection is a must these days, especially when you want to password protect emails in Outlook. With hacking, spyware, malware, and more, you can never be too safe to make sure that your messages are staying in the right hands. That’s why, in this guide, we will explain how you can password protect emails in Outlook or Outlook.com and keep your conversations private.
Types of password protection
Before getting into anything, we’ll want to mention that using password protection for emails in Outlook actually does for you. When you password protect emails in Outlook, the contents of the email are encrypted and changed from readable text to cipher text. Only those who have the private key, which matches the public key that was used to encrypt the message can read it.
The Outlook app on macOS and Windows 10 uses S/MIME encryption and Office 365 Message Encryption. S/MIME is the most common type of encryption and is the most accepted by other email clients. This is also the most complicated encryption type, and you’ll need to purchase or have a S/MIME certificate already configured on your computer by your IT admin to use it.
It is also worth noting that the Outlook.com web app uses opportunistic Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt the connection with a recipient’s email provider. With TLS, the message might not stay encrypted after the message reaches the recipient’s email provider. If you’re looking for the most secure password protection, the Outlook app is the way to go. But, if you’re looking for the most simple, the Outlook Web app is what you might want to use.
Password protect emails in Outlook
To get started with using password protection on your emails in the Outlook app, you’ll want to make sure that it is properly configured. You’ll also need to have a S/MIME certificate installed on your system. If you meet those requirements, you can proceed.
Start by opening Outlook 2016 or Outlook 2019 and clicking the File Ribbon. Once there, choose Options, followed by Trust Center Settings. From that page, you’ll want to click Email Security. You should then see an Encrypted email section. Be sure to choose Settings. From there, under Certificates and Algorithms, be sure to choose and select S/MIME and then click OK.
Once the feature is enabled, you can encrypt your email. Simply compose and message as you normally would, and then click the Options tab. From there, choose Encrypt and then choose Encrypt with S/MIME.
Using password protection on emails via Outlook.com
Now, for the easy part. Using password protection on Outlook.com is quite a simple task. Unlike using the Outlook app, the web app simplifies things, and you don’t need any special certificates installed.
To encrypt messages on Outlook.com, all you need to do is simply write your message as normal and click the encrypt button above the To: bar on the top of the user interface. Once done, you can send your message as normal. Just be aware that Outlook.com uses opportunistic Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt the connection with a recipient’s email provider. As we described before, this is a little less secure than TLS, the message might not stay encrypted after the message reaches the recipient’s email.
Other ways to stay secure online
Protecting your emails is just one way to stay secure online. With Microsoft 365 and Windows 10, you can stay protected in many different ways. You can password lock your files and folders in Windows 10, use Bitlocker, protect Office 365 documents, and more. We talked about that here, so feel free to check it out. And, keep it locked to OnMSFT for all your Microsoft 365 news and information.
