Encrypting Data

Encrypting E-Mail Conversations

12.2.3. How can external recipients read an encrypted E-Mail?

You can also send encrypted E-Mails to external recipients who are no groupware users. When adding an external recipient, Guard checks whether a public key is available for this E-Mail address. Depending on the result, Guard uses different procedures for sending the encrypted E-Mail.

  • If there is a public key for the recipient:

    • The message is sent encrypted with this key. The recipient can read the message with his/her private key.

  • If there is no public key for the recipient:

    • If the external user already has a guest account, he/she receives an E-Mail with the link to the login page of his/her guest account. When having logged in, he/she can read the encrypted E-Mail on the guest page. He/she can send an encrypted reply from this page.

    • If there is no guest account, a guest account will be created. The external recipient receives an E-Mail with a link to a guest page and an automatically created password. The user logs in to the guest page. Then he/she can create an own password.

      Depending on the configuration, the automatically created password and the link to the guest page are sent in separate E-Mails.

    • Depending on the groupware configuration, guest account E-Mails are deleted after a specific number of days.

    The external recipient can send an encrypted reply to the encrypted E-Mail. It is not possible to add additional recipients though.

Also see

Parent topic: Encrypting E-Mail Conversations