5 Steps to Send An Encrypted Email in Gmail

These days, we use Gmail for everything from customer service to telehealth. Customers and employees send drivers licenses and passport information to validate their identity or complete HR onboarding tasks. Over time, your Gmail account can become a treasure trove of sensitive PII, PCI, PHI, and passwords that can fall into the wrong hands. In fact, as of this year, just under half of all data breaches involve email. And according to a recent study, 80% of companies admitted to experiencing an email breach in the last year–including everything from successful phishing attacks, to email login credential compromises, data leaks, ransomware, and more. 

So, what can you do to protect your inbox? One thing is for sure, it's time to go beyond strong passwords or password managers designed to keep accounts in Gmail confidential. You need a way to keep sensitive data out of email, altogether.

Enter: email encryption.

What is an email encryption solution, and why do you need one?

As part of a strong DLP strategy, you not only need to prevent unauthorized sharing of sensitive corporate assets, but you need to enable secure, authorized ways to share sensitive data needed in daily business workflows. 

Whether you’re sharing intellectual property with your boss, need to deliver an active API key to an outside collaborator, or you're sending electronic health records to a patient, you don’t want anyone but your intended recipient looking at your emails. In fact, unsecured email content is one great way it falls into the hands of unauthorized users. Not only can someone compromise an individual account and find sensitive data in sent folders using quick, educated content searches of unencrypted emails, but your recipients can fall prey to attacks or phishing scams, too, exposing your data. 

Encryption usually does the trick by converting your email into a code that only the intended recipient can decipher. This protects your data during transmission so that any personal, financial, or medical details stay hidden from prying eyes. What's more, your solution should give you the option to set an expiration date as an additional layer of security to protect it from unauthorized access in the future.

Luckily, it’s easy to encrypt your emails in Gmail using a third-party tool like Nightfall AI.

How to send an encrypted email in Gmail

If you want to send an encrypted email in Gmail, follow these five simple steps:

1. Compose your email: Start by drafting your email as you normally would.

2. Turn on "Confidential Mode:" Click the lock-and-clock icon at the bottom of your email draft to activate Gmail’s "Confidential Mode."

3. Set an expiration date: Choose a date for your email to expire. This ensures that recipients can only access your message for a limited time.

4. Require a passcode: You can add an extra layer of security by requiring a passcode. Recipients will need a code sent via SMS to open the email.

5. Send your email: After setting your preferences, click send. Your email will remain encrypted until its expiration date.

But that's not all you can do to protect your emails in Gmail. Read on for some additional security measures that you can implement.

How to send a password protected email in Gmail

Email providers typically offer their own security options, and it's never a bad idea to use them on top of what you're already doing. However, it should be noted that these are not a solid standalone strategy for protecting email accounts or individual emails. First of all, you're relying on users to know which emails should be sent as confidential messages, and which are okay to send as a regular email. Second, you're assuming they will remember to follow policy. Without continuous monitoring of email accounts in a way that scans and classifies the contents of outgoing emails, there is no way to ensure this happens consistently. So, in-app email security is best used in addition to–not instead of–a broader cloud workspace DLP strategy and controls.

For enhanced security, consider using password protection alongside encryption in Gmail. With Gmail’s "Confidential Mode," you can require recipients to enter a passcode that they'll receive via SMS. This means only your intended recipient can open your message, even if someone else gains access to their inbox.

What secure sharing tools can you use to encrypt your email in Gmail?

While Gmail offers some native security features, it could be worth looking into an email DLP tool. By definition, email services are not designed to contextualize risky sharing and security posture in your email with your overall data security posture and strategy. Email DLP tools offer the following advantages:

• Automated email protection solutions: Automatically encrypt or quarantine, block emails that contain sensitive data, so nothing slips through the cracks.

• Advanced threat detection solutions: Identify accidental data exposure before it compromises your inbox.

• Continuous compliance solutions: Ensure that your emails meet industry regulations in order to protect your business from fines.

Long story short, if you handle personal, financial, or health information at work, it may be worth looking into an email DLP solution for a little more peace of mind. Ideally, this is simply an expansion of your existing DLP provider's offering, so you don't have to use multiple point solutions. This helps you reduce vendor management burdens and portal overload, but also helps you strengthen a unified approach to cloud and SaaS DLP.

Why use Nightfall for email encryption?

Nightfall’s Data Encryption and Data Detection & Response tools offer fine-grained control over email security, including options to:

• Automatically encrypt emails without navigating out of the app.

• Intercept and block or quarantine emails that contain sensitive data in email body, subject or attachments text, and in unencrypted form.

• Scan email attachments to flag the presence of sensitive data.

• Remove email attachments when they are too sensitive for sharing, even if securely.

• Encrypt attachments to ensure they remain secured.

• Revoke email access for any user.

• Block email forwarding for sensitive emails.

• Keep confidential emails private.

Superior Encryption Capabilities

Go beyond standard encryption. To provide superior protection for your sensitive files, Nightfall AI uses military-grade level of encryption in our email security solution.

Here’s why Nightfall stands out:

• Full visibility and control: Nightfall’s centralized console allows security teams to monitor every encryption event. This feature keeps you informed about who sends and receives encrypted emails, who opens encrypted emails, downloads attachments. You can also revoke access to all or certain recipients on demand, change expiration dates or disable forwarding in addition to these controls available to senders.

• Easy deployment across teams: Nightfall’s Chrome plugin works with Mobile Device Management (MDM) or Google Workspace. This helps you to deploy Nightfall across your entire team in a matter or minutes.

• Custom policies: Security teams can create policies for both manual and automated email encryption to give their teams flexibility.

• AI-powered data protection: Nightfall’s generative AI (GenAI) platform scans emails in real-time. This capability allows you to encrypt emails based on sharing of specific data types, like PII, PCI, PHI, or credentials.

• Smooth user experience: Nightfall integrates seamlessly with Gmail so that you don't have to setup complex mail exchange (MX) records or disable native support features. Encryption options are embedded directly within the Gmail compose window making it very simple for end-users.

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What's the best way to send an encrypted Gmail email?

In a world where a single email could cause a breach, email encryption is a necessity for any business. Nightfall provides a simple, effective way to send encrypted emails in Gmail without any strain on your daily workflows.

Ready to start encrypting your emails? Contact Nightfall to learn more about our email encryption and DLP solutions.

Final thoughts: How to level up your Google Workspace DLP with Nightfall 

In addition to encrypting your emails, consider the added benefits of integrating Nightfall across your entire Google Workspace.

How does Nightfall protect your Google workspace? 

Nightfall's integrated DLP approach delivers comprehensive protection across your Google Workspace. 

In Gmail, Nightfall’s AI-powered detection engine scans emails in real time to identify and protect sensitive data via encryption, redaction, and other remediation options like blocking, quarantining, or removing attachments. 

In Google Drive, Nightfall provides visibility into data movement and file sharing activities. It monitors uploads, tracks permissions changes, and detects unauthorized downloads. These real-time insights and automated responses help manage insider risks and data exfiltration, all while enhancing your overall security posture.

In short, by combining seamless integration with AI-driven features, Nightfall ensures that your Google Workspace remains continuously secure and compliant.

Learn More About Nightfall AI

Nightfall AI provides next-gen DLP across your environment, with a special focus on your "hardest to reach" areas, namely your cloud-based SaaS applications and workspaces. Our philosophy is simple: create the most powerful AI detection engine on the market, and empower employees to be part of the solution.

See Nightfall in action by scheduling your own custom demo today.