John M. Hoffman & Associates CPAs

Message Guard (email security)

We currently use "Message Guard" as a service to send secure emails of confidential documents. We do not use this for everyday emails back and forth with clients but we do like to use this when sending confidential attachments such as a "pdf" of your tax return.

MessageGuard - How does it work? 

  1. We have subscribed to this service which allows us to send secure emails. It cost you nothing to receive emails from us this way.

  2. We will send you a secure email (only when we are transmitting personal information.

  3. The first time you receive a secure email from us, you will be directed to a MessageGuard enrollment page.

  4. Step One of enrollment process: You will need to enter your name and a password to setup your MessageGuard account. Please note your password as you will need it to retrieve later messages.

  5. Step Two of enrollment process: After entering a name and password you will get a confirmation email which you need to open and COMPLETE the enrollment process.

  6. After you complete the process you will be directed to the secure email we sent you and you can view it.

  7. Subsequent secure emails that we send to you will only require you to select your email account and enter your password.

IMPORTANT NOTE: 

Our subscription to the MessageGuard service provides protection for emails sent to you by us but NOT emails received from you by us. We do not see this as being a large problem as most of you do not send us personal information through email but if you do see this as a problem we encourage you to seek similar methods to secure your emails. 

Click on the following link for additional information about MessageGuard.