Feature Friday: how to exclude domains

Smartlockr: that’s one platform, with different features. In this series, we will highlight one every Friday and show how secure and user-friendly email looks like. We’ll explain it briefly, in less than 500 words.

Today we have excluded domains, which is a feature that will increase user-friendliness. What it is and how it exactly works, you'll read in this blog. 

What are excluded domains?

Messages and files sent with Smartlockr have a certain degree of security. It depends on the type of message you have chosen and the security that comes with it. The recipient may be asked to authenticate with two-factor authentication. Or received files can only be downloaded from a secure Smartlockr portal, via a link in an email.

This may feel as a hassle,  for instance because you communicate regularly with a certain person. Or there are certain domains and / or e-mail addresses that are trusted within the organization,  so additional security is not required from Smartlockr.

In this case, excluded domains offer the solution. It allows you to exclude these email addresses and domains, so you'll be sending messages to these addresses as a regular email.

When should excluded domains be used?

There are some advantages for excluding domains. Here are some suggestions when it could be used: 

• It increases user-friendliness. This is because recipients don't need to take additional action when they receive confidential information from your organization. That works well if there is regular communication between your organization and certain recipients.
• In addition, it may be desirable to communicate with recipients who are not allowed to open emails, sent by a third party from an organizational policy. This applies to banks, for example, where employees are not allowed to click on links in emails.
  
• Also, recipients may receive emails through a system, which doesn't support the use of Smartlockr. This could cause problems when opening a message sent with Smartlockr. By excluding these specific domains, the emails will be sent as normal emails.
• Finally, there is also internal communication: sharing information internally doesn't have to be done in the most secure way. It might be desirable to use this option, to exclude company-domains.

Which domains you would like to exclude, depends totally on which domains you trust and if it's desirable because of companypolicy.

How excluded domains with Smartlockr work

Domain exclusion can only be done by the administrator within the organization.

This is easily done from the admin portal. In the menu on the left, under users, you will find the option recipient policy. This is where both domains and specific email addresses can be added.

When you click on add excluded domain, you will see a screen  where you can add the exclusions. You see, it's as simple as that!