Virtru Review: Easily Protect Data Wherever It's Created or Shared

Virtru Pricing & Cost

Virtru is free for individuals to download and use. For companies, Virtru's pricing varies based upon the products you purchase and your number of users. For example, Virtru offers a HIPAA Compliance Package for an additional fee. Based upon our research, we estimate that Virtru costs $50-100 per user per year.

To get a quote from Virtru, click here.

Table of Contents

• Full Review
• Virtru Pricing & Cost
• Products
  • Gmail Encryption
  • Google Drive Encryption
  • Microsoft Email Encryption
  • Enterprise Apps Encryption
• Is Virtru right for you?

Virtru Review: Easily Protect Data Wherever It's Created or Shared

Virtru was founded in 2012 by brothers John and Will Ackerly to make it easier for organizations to protect their data. The company is built on research that originated at the NSA. More than 8,000 companies, including WeWork and HBO, rely on Virtru for encryption of email, Google Drive, and other enterprise applications. Virtru works with companies in the healthcare, finance, government, manufacturing and education industries. The company is based in Washington, DC and has 127 employees.

Virtru offers four products that work with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365: Gmail Encryption, Google Drive Encryption, Microsoft Email Encryption, and Enterprise Apps Encryption. All provide end-to-end encryption to protect your data from the time you create it to when it is viewed by the intended recipients, and make it simple to maintain HIPAA and GDPR compliance. All products come with the following functionality:

Overall, Virtru is a more user-friendly and secure alternative to portal-based encryption technologies. These technologies allow you to encrypt your data, but require you and your recipients to use a separate system. These vendors also typically have access to your data, which creates a risk of data breach. If you are looking for an enterprise grade tool to protect your data and ensure HIPAA or GDPR compliance, Virtru is a powerful solution that we highly recommend.

Products

Below, we'll discuss Virtru's four products, and how they could benefit your business. We have also included images to give you a sense of the software's design and architecture.

Gmail Encryption

Virtru's Gmail encryption tool allows you to protect and encrypt emails without changing the way you use Gmail. It's end-to-end encryption means that your emails will stay encrypted from the time you send it until it is received by the intended recipient. Neither Google, the recipient's server, nor Virtru have access to your content.

To send an encrypted email, you switch a toggle in Gmail and then draft and send your email as you normally would, right in the Gmail application. When the email is received, the recipient uses their private key to decrypt the email. Recipients do not need to install Virtru or create a new account to read your content. You can control forwarding, set expiration dates, and see who has opened your messages. This is what the tool looks like in Gmail:

Google Drive Encryption

In addition to Gmail, Vitru offers a solution to add client-side email and file encryption, control, and data loss prevention (DLP) to the full G Suite. The tool is controlled through an organization-wide dashboard. In the dashboard, your administrator can set up company security policies, revoke access, set expiration dates and track forwarding for all files in your organization. Admins can also configure DLP rules that detect sensitive content prior to it being sent. Here is a look at the G Suite dashboard:

All of Virtru's G Suite functionality is built directly into Drive's user interface. This intuitive design makes it easy for your team to comply with your security policies. Virtru is Google's recommended provider of email and file encryption, which is a great signal of credibility.

Microsoft Email Encryption

Virtru also works with Microsoft Outlook. In Outlook, Virtru allows you to protect your emails and files, control access to your data and comply with HIPAA, FERPA and CFPB. Neither Microsoft, Virtru nor any third-party will have access to your data. The tool allows you to set expiration dates, disable forwarding, add a watermark, and revoke access even after a message is sent.

As with Gmail, recipients do not need to install Virtru to receive and respond to secure emails. They simply need to unlock the email and verify themselves through a Microsoft log-in or verification email. They will then be taken to a Virtru webpage where they can securely reply. Below is an example of what the recipient will see when replying. To read secure emails in their inbox or compose new secure messages, the recipient will need to download the Virtru application.

Enterprise Apps Encryption

Virtru provides protection for common applications beyond Google and Microsoft through its Data Protection Gateway. In these applications, Virtru protects emails, attachments, and other files. Below are some of the popular applications that Virtru integrates with:

Virtru can also be set up to protect PII, PHI and other data within custom internal applications. You will have the ability to scan and detect specific types of data, and control access & forwarding to prevent data leaks.

Is Virtru right for you?

Virtru is a well-designed data protection solution that integrates seamlessly into G Suite and Microsoft Outlook to help organizations comply with HIPAA, GDPR and other standards. It is a market leader in both security and ease of use. Based upon these factors, we highly recommend Virtru to any organization that is in the market for an email encryption tool. To learn more about Virtru, visit them here.

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