E-mail messages are sometimes quarantined because they or their attachments contain personally identifiable information (PII). In some cases, where the PII is in the quoted section of the body of the message, one can simply mask out the relevant information. In other cases it is necessary to send such information as a password protected ZIP archive attachment. 7Zip has the ability to zip and password protect files.

After downloading and installing 7Zip, you can then archive files in ZIP format. This is useful for reducing the size of attachments and encrypting the contents. To use 7Zip, start in the Microsoft File Explorer:

Navigate to the file you wish to archive and right click on it to bring up the context menu. Select 7Zip > Add to archive . This will open up the 7Zip menu. Go through the following steps:

1. Choose the name of the archive (by default it is the name of the file you right-clicked on with a .zip extension, but you may wish to change this if you have multiple files to place in one archive).

2. Choose a password

3. Click OK

Repeat the process for each file you wish to place in the archive. Note: the password fields will already be filled for subsequent files.

It is highly recommended that the password be sent in a separate e-mail message with a minimum of explanation.