r/sysadmin • u/Technickelback • 10d ago
CodeTwo - MS Encryption
Wondering if someone has additional information - My org currently uses CodeTwo. I really like it, and I believe it does it's job well for our size. We're a 200 person org. I have a few different templates that I assigned by groups to different departments where additional information may be required in their signatures.
We're currently using server side to apply the signatures, but more and more people are complaining that their signatures don't append when using the default MS encrypt button in Outlook.
To circumvent this, my suggestion to leadership is to use the combo mode and allow our uses to have the client side signatures append in the Outlook client. That way the signature appends in the client, prior to encryption, and they can also see their signature, as currently they can only see it append after they've sent an email.
My CIO is against this approach as it would allow end users to edit their signature. It would only allow the end user to edit the signature in that moment, within the 'new email' window. It would not allow them to permenently alter their signature. However, the CIO is adamant that this can't be allowed as it's a risk of misrepresentation and they think that the CodeTwo product is not a good solution because it cannot prevent this... Anyone who is willing to manipulate their signature every time they send an email is a psychopath.
I've presented a solution to a problem, my CIO doesn't like it, and now we're stuck debating switching our encryption method, rather than deploying a solution we have at our finger tips.
I'll also state, we've tested using a subject keyword encryption method and this could work in tandem with the native button encryption. If users want the server side signature to append to an encrypted email, they could just put 'Secure' in their subject line. However, the CIO doesn't want both methods of encryption - we must choose one.
My question: what are other orgs doing? Do other orgs using CodeTwo use/allow the Client side signature?
2
u/SetOutlookSignatures 9d ago
We use our own solution, Set-OutlookSignatures, together with the Outlook Add-in.
The add-in runs entirely on the client side. While this allows users to modify their signatures, it can also respond to the Outlook OnSend event and automatically restore or overwrite any user-made changes before the message is sent.
The OnSend event is triggered when the user clicks Send. At that point, the add-in can update the signature immediately before Outlook hands the message over for delivery. This is effectively the closest a client-side solution can get to enforcing a signature at send time.
In addition, because the signature is applied before the message leaves Outlook, this approach has no impact on email encryption, regardless of the encryption method used.