Introducing Persistent File Protection for Gmail

As Virtru continues to help 5,000+ organizations worldwide collaborate with confidence, today we’re thrilled to announce Persistent File Protection for Gmail. Persistent File Protection enables private, compliant sharing of attachments beyond Gmail to desktops, Google Drive, shared network folders, and other cloud platforms—while maintaining control and visibility. This new capability is included with our existing Gmail protection solution at no additional charge to Virtru customers.

Editor’s Note: As of February 4, 2020, Persistent File Protection is also available for Microsoft Outlook users.

Organizations are sharing sensitive data via files and attachments more and more as a necessity to innovate and stay competitive. But that sharing compounds risk in today’s cloud-first world, while most data protection solutions tend to inhibit sharing workflows. With Persistent File Protection for Gmail, you no longer have to choose between protecting Gmail attachments and sharing them. 

Users with the Virtru for Gmail Chrome browser extension will see Persistent File Protection as a new access control under the “Message Options” menu. When this new control is applied to commonly shared file types—such as Microsoft Office documents (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx), PDFs, image files (.jpg, .jpeg, .png), and text files (.txt)—the attachment is updated with a new file extension format, .tdf.html. 

The .tdf.html extension represents a protective HTML wrapper that ensures the attachment’s end-to-end encryption and granular access control policies persist even after the file is downloaded from the initial email. It can be stored in and shared via Google Drive, network folders, flash drives, or any other file collaboration platform or tool, and recipient and collaborators get seamless, secure access via the Secure Reader. Meanwhile, the file owner always maintains visibility, with control over who can access the attachment and the ability to revoke access at any time. 

To learn more about how Virtru Persistent File Protection can protect your Gmail attachments and enable new collaboration workflows, watch the educational webinar recording on-demand, or set up a demo with a Gmail protection expert to see it firsthand.