Components of the Cisco Email Security Plug-in
The Cisco Email Security Plug-in consists of two commonly used email security plug-ins: the Reporting plug-in and the Encryption plug-in. You may deploy the Cisco Email Security Plug-in on your Outlook email program. When you deploy the Cisco Email Security Plug-in, it installs one or both of the following applications:
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The Reporting Plug-in. The Reporting Plug-in enables Outlook users to submit feedback to Cisco Systems about unsolicited and unwanted email messages, such as spam, viruses, phishing, and marketing messages. For details, see The Reporting Plug-in.
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The Encryption Plug-in. The Encryption Plug-in places an Encrypt Message button in the menu bar of an email message to provide an easy way for a sender to mark a message to be encrypted. For details, see The Encryption Plug-in.
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The Encryption Plug-in requires the presence and proper configuration of a Cisco Email Security appliance or have a Cisco Registered Envelope Service (CRES) account. |
The Reporting Plug-in
The Reporting Plug-in enables Outlook users to submit feedback to Cisco about unsolicited and unwanted email messages, such as spam, viruses, phishing, and marketing messages. Cisco uses this feedback to update its filters to stop unwanted messages from being delivered to your inbox
You can also report false positives, which are legitimate email messages that are marked as spam, to Cisco by using the Not Spam button. Legitimate email messages are often referred to as “ham”. Cisco uses reports about false positives to adjust its spam filters to avoid misclassifying legitimate email in the future. Any valid email can be reported as Not Spam and it helps to increase filter efficacy.
This plug-in provides a convenient interface that enables you to submit feedback by using toolbar buttons and right-click context menus. When you report a message, a dialog box appears indicating that the message was submitted. The message data that you submit is used by automated systems to improve the Cisco filters. By submitting message data, you help to reduce the volume of unsolicited email in your inbox.
The Encryption Plug-in
The Encryption Plug-in places an Encrypt Message button in the menu bar of an email message to provide an easy way for senders to mark messages to be encrypted and secured before it leaves the organization.
There are two types of encryption available: Flag Encryption and Desktop Encryption. The Flag Encryption option allows you to flag the email for encryption, and the email is encrypted by the Cisco Email Security appliance (ESA) before the email is sent out of the network. Desktop Encryption allows you to encrypt email from within your email program using the Cisco encryption technology. Then, it sends the encrypted email from your desktop. You may want to use Desktop Encryption if you want to ensure that mail sent within your organization is encrypted.
The Encryption plug-in is designed to work with a functioning and configured Cisco Email Security appliance, if one exist in your network. The configuration you use for the Encryption plug-in should be developed in conjunction with the settings on these appliances. If you do not use the same configurations for these appliances, issues may occur when sending encrypted messages.