If you are reading this information, you have received an encrypted message in an attachment in your regular inbox or have been asked to pre-register. You are asked to create a password. Your password allows you to decrypt and read the secure messages.
Built-In Encryption and Security
Once your email address is registered and you have created your password, you can decrypt and read secure messages in your regular inbox. The decrypted message displays in your local browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Firefox. If you can access your inbox, you can decrypt and view your messages.
To open the message, you must know the password registered for the receiving email address. Secure messages are stored in your inbox until you delete them.
If you receive ZixDirect messages from two different organizations, you might notice that messages look different and require different actions to register, sign-on, and read the message. That is caused by the configuration defined by the organization.
The organization can define:
Password rules
The organization that sent the message defines what makes a valid password.
Depending on the security needs, the password can be all characters or
a mixture of characters, symbols, and numbers. Because each organization
can have unique password rules, the rules are displayed on the Registration
and Sign-on pages.
Activation
The organization that sent you the message has defined whether you
need to activate your password when you create it. Activation is a safety-check
that ensures that you are the one that created the password. Activation
involves a second email in your regular inbox before you can read your
message.
The organization originating the messages may elect to use auto-activation.
When you create your password, you can read your message immediately without
having the additional steps involved in activation.
Activation is used when you first create a password or when you change
a forgotten password. If you change the password when you know your current
password, you are not required to go through the activation steps.
The messages that you receive are stored in your regular inbox in encrypted form. You can read these messages when you are not online with the following exceptions:
Messages received before you registered with the organization must be read online.
If you have forgotten the password associated with the message, you must be online to recover the password.
You must be online to reply to a message.
The organization that is sending you the message might suggest that you pre-register before receiving your first message. This allows you to read the message when you are not online. The sending organization should send you a URL that allows you to pre-register.
It is possible that you might forget a ZixDirect password. If you do, you can recover your password two ways:
You can create a new password for the organization that sent you the message. This allows you to read all future messages from this organization using the new password. Messages you received from the organization before you created the new password (including the current message) still use the previous password. See Change a Known Password for more information.
You can change the password of a message you have previously received from the organization. The password changes to your current password for the organization. See Recover a Message for more information.