Data Loss Prevention

Prevent Autocomplete Email Mistakes with Egress

by Egress
Published on 1st Jan 2020

Avoid that email mistake

  • Autocomplete – the productivity tool with risk attached. Autocomplete in Outlook is designed to make life easier by detecting sent and inbound email addresses and adding them as suggested recipients for future emails. Users type a few letters of an address and autocomplete does the rest… but it doesn’t always select the right recipient. The tool also adds mistyped addresses to its directory, making it easy to repeat the mistake in future.
  • Autocomplete fail is a familiar experience for many. Autocomplete fail is a familiar experience for many.  It may just result in red faces, but if confidential data in the email or file attachment has been sent to the wrong recipient, it could cause a data breach that puts the business at risk.
  • Address autocomplete anxiety. Egress Prevent uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect when an email address may have been selected in error by autocomplete and alert the user.

Read our blog about autocomplete pros and cons

Keep autosuggestion active

  • Keep the benefits, lose the risks. Autocomplete is a time-saving tool, especially given the volume of emails sent every day. Disabling it can have a serious impact on productivity.
  • Intelligent real-time user support. Egress intelligently learns and analyses user behaviour, examining whether the selected recipient been emailed before and if they usually receive this type of content.
  • Scrutinise domain security. Egress scrutinises domain authenticity and security characteristics to identify whether an address error may be present. Users are alerted at the point of send so mistakes can be corrected before they become a breach.

How to disable autocomplete

  • Disabling autocomplete is a big decision. Some enterprises have taken this approach in a bid to mitigate security risk, but as one risk reduces, others increase.
  • Mistyped addresses increase. Users who have to type full email addresses are more likely to make mistakes, resulting in mis-sent emails and potential data loss.
  • Risk of user workarounds. Without the ease of autocomplete, users are likely to create their own directories in other applications. This may lead to the storage of personal contact data on local devices, creating a risk for the business.
  • Think differently about autocomplete. Egress Prevent support users to work with their preferred productivity tools such as autocomplete. By adding an intelligent security layer that identifies mistakes before they become breaches, businesses can reduce risk and retain performance.

See how Egress eliminates email errors in our webinar, Ending email errors: What’s new in Egress Threat Protection?