Axway has announced data leak prevention (DLP) enhancements to the MailGate email security appliance’s Policy Engine, enabling digital rights management (DRM) for attachments.

MailGate will now limit recipients’ ability to alter or appropriate attachment information by converting inbound and outbound Microsoft Office attachments into password-protected, ‘locked’ PDF documents.

To date, email DLP has seen content filtering policies scan and then encrypt, redirect or block sensitive information in outbound emails and attachments. However, there has been no protection of the integrity of this information once beyond an enterprise email gateway. Recipients could print, copy or manipulate Office attachments, increasing potential for the altering of contracts, plagiarism of collateral, or doctoring of compliance reports.

MailGate’s incorporation of DRM into its Policy Engine means senders retain greater control over a document’s integrity, even when sent to partners or customers. PDF documents are protected by 32-byte passwords, established by the sending organisation, which remains solely authorised to make document changes.

With MailGate’s PDF conversion enabled, recipients of a converted, password-protected PDF document will not be able to print, add pages, insert comments or copy and paste content. Additionally,MailGate eliminates metadata from outbound documents such as tracked changes, edits or revision history to ensure only desired information reaches recipients.