a onepoll.com survey revealed that up to 70% of Britons admit to sending an email to the wrong recipient. in particular, the most errors occurred when messaging via text, followed by desktop and smartphone email. Emailing the wrong person can be downright embarrassing, but it can also be potentially risky. those who make the mistake can be reprimanded, fired from their jobs, or worse, cause a security breach. sometimes a simple apology and a request to ignore the email is enough. other times, it can have dire consequences.
For example, a Pepsico lawyer inadvertently sent a confidential email to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter about the company’s security investigation. the wsj reporter claimed to have deleted the email, but still wrote an article about it.
Emails sent to the wrong address can also pose security issues that can compromise the integrity of your business. Cyber criminals get sensitive information inside these emails to target sender or organization from him. Fortunately, there are ways to recover emails sent to the wrong address.
ways to recover an email sent to the wrong address
using outlook exchange server message retrieval feature
if the email was sent via outlook, the service’s message recovery feature could easily recover it.
- From the sent items folder, open the email you want to retrieve. the message must be open to do this. simply choosing it from the reading pane is not enough to retrieve the message.
- in the message tab, click actions > remember this message.
Please note, however, that the message recovery feature can only be applied to emails that have already been sent. the action automatically moves all unopened copies of the recovered email to the recipients deleted folder. in cases where a recipient immediately opens the email, the action will not work. that recipient sees a notification that the sender is trying to retrieve the message.
Also note that this feature is only available on outlook exchange server. if done in an outlook desktop app, although the option is available, it will not remove the incorrectly sent email from the recipient’s inbox.
enable gmail undo send
for gmail users, you can recover an email sent to the wrong address with the undo send feature.
- in google settings scroll down to see undo send and then click enable.
- set cancel window time then save changes.
once this is configured, users should see the undo option in the sent email notification bar. Please note, however, that the cancellation window is short. It is also crucial to know that this function does not remember a sent message; it just delays sending any message.
email security technology
Using an email security solution like safesend makes it easy for users to verify the recipients of messages before sending them. solves problems related to the accidental sending of misdirected emails. safesend’s external recipient confirmation feature, for example, allows users to verify external email recipient addresses so they don’t have to retrieve incorrectly sent emails.
safesend also has an encryption enablement feature that automatically scans emails and attachments for personally identifiable information (PII). this feature prevents sensitive data from being leaked. With its custom secure domains/emails feature, administrators can also pre-define authorized recipients of specific emails. as such, senders are prompted when they attempt to send messages to domains or email addresses that are not on the approved list.
The features described above are just some of the ways safesend helps users avoid the need to retrieve emails sent to incorrect addresses. For more detailed information about our product and its features, please connect with us at https://safesendsoftware.com/contact and let our in-house security experts help you with your specific needs.