To further protect transmission of sensitive District information, both Student and Staff Personally Identifiable Information (PII), etc., Fort Bend ISD has implemented an easy to use Secure Email Service. Email sent to anyone outside of FBISD is not encrypted (it is transmitted in “the clear” and the contents of the email, including attachments, could be intercepted and read). This differs from District email sent between District employees (or Students) within the Office 365 system which is encrypted during transport (email sent between @fortbendisd.com and/or @fortbend.k12.tx.us email addresses).

The FBISD Secure Email Service will allow you to securely send email to external email recipients by simply adding the keyword #secure or #encrypt to the Subject line of the email message. These keywords can come at the beginning, middle or end of the email Subject field and are not cAse SenSitiVE so you could use #Encrypt, #ENCRYPT, etc.

These keywords, #secure and #encrypt, will instruct the email system to encrypt the email message, including attachments, and send an unencrypted email to the intended recipient(s) with detailed instructions on how to retrieve the secure message. It is that simple.

The recipient can securely “reply” inside of the secure message delivery system and that communication will also be encrypted (again, the recipient receives a standard email message with instructions on how to collect the encrypted message and/or attachments).

We encourage new users to this service to test the functionality with a colleague prior to sending sensitive information outside of the District.


Examples of #secure and #encrypt in the Subject field (again these keywords are NOT cAse SenSitiVE):

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FBISD Secure Email Service Handout PDF

If you have any questions or concerns please contact the CSC for assistance.

Note: If you find that you must routinely send sensitive information to an external partner, please contact our Data Integration Services team (via the CSC) who has more options for securely sending and receiving sensitive District data.