Exchange Hosted Encryption

Exchange Hosted Encryption is a convenient, easy-to-use e-mail encryption service that helps to safely deliver your confidential business communications. Government and industry regulations, such as those posed by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Gramm-Leach-Bliley, offer even more compelling reasons for business to increase the security of messages to help meet compliance requirements. However, existing solutions—such as server-to-server level encryption, public key infrastructure (PKI), and password-protected files—can be expensive and complicated to integrate and deploy for communication with parties outside of your business. These solutions do not provide the flexibility, sophistication, or ease of use that small business users need to deploy e-mail encryption for external communications. Exchange Hosted Encryption is one of four distinct services in the Microsoft Exchange Advance Services portfolio. The service enables you to send and receive encrypted e-mail directly from your desktop as easily as regular e-mail. Using a simple process, users can encrypt and deliver any business communication without complex hardware and software to purchase, configure, and maintain.

How it Works

In traditional encryption systems such as PKI, certificates bind public keys to identities. Users must pre-enroll in server systems to receive a certificate, which is signed by a certification authority, so that they can send and receive secure messages.

Microsoft Exchange Hosted Encryption Flow Diagram

Exchange Hosted Encryption incorporates Identity-Based Encryption (IBE) technology in a managed service platform. Developed by Voltage Security, a Microsoft technology partner, IBE is a breakthrough in security and usability for message encryption. Exchange Hosted Encryption eliminates the need for certificates and uses a recipient’s e-mail address as the public key; IBE automatically binds the user’s identity to the public key and eliminates the need for certificates.