Read Without Email Verification (RWEV) is an option available to Mailock Pro users using the Outlook Add-in, which allows a sender to send a secure message to an unregistered recipient that they can read just by answering the challenge question.
In other words, they do not have to confirm they are the owner of the email address by entering a verification code. The option is offered on the challenge screen, as highlighted below. If you don’t have this option, then it hasn’t been enabled by your Mailock administrator.
Whilst this makes the process easier, the risk of the email being read by the wrong person increases. It’s therefore key if you choose to use RWEV, that the challenge question/answer is known only to you and your recipient.
RWEV only affects guest users, in other words, people that don’t have an account with us. As we don’t know anything about a guest recipient, we do two things when they open a secure message:
- Verify they have access to their inbox. This might seem unnecessary as they have just opened an email from you but what if the email had been intercepted? Or forwarded?
- Verify their identity using a challenge question and answer (that you set)
If you select 'Set challenge question and answer (without email verification)' - RWEV. This means the security of the message is completely dependent on the challenge question – if you use a question that can be easily guessed the security of your message could be compromised.