Paubox Email Suite customers can now turn on Wrong Recipients Detection, which catches an email that's about to go to the wrong person. When a recipient's address looks like a typo of someone the sender already emails, Paubox holds delivery to that recipient and asks the sender whether to send or stop it.

Why catch the wrong recipient

A single mistyped character can send protected health information (PHI) to a stranger. Under the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule, an impermissible disclosure of PHI is presumed to be a breach unless a risk assessment shows a low probability that the information was compromised.

Wrong Recipients Detection gives the sender a chance to stop the mistake before delivery. For example, suppose a billing coordinator emails a statement to alison.doe@example.com instead of allison.doe@example.com, a patient they email every month. Paubox holds that one recipient and sends the coordinator a notification with links to send the message or stop it.

How it works

Paubox learns who each sender emails from their Sent folder, then checks every outbound recipient against that sender's own history. A recipient is held when the address looks like a typo of a person or a domain the sender already emails. At the default setting, a recipient isn't held just for being new.

Holds apply to each recipient, so everyone else on the email receives it right away. The sender can respond from the notification without logging in, and held recipients also appear in Outbound Quarantine under the Wrong recipient category.

If the sender doesn't respond within 5 minutes, the held message is sent by default. Admins can change the hold length, the timeout action and how sensitive detection is in Settings > Outbound Security.

Because detection compares addresses, it can occasionally hold a correct recipient, such as a colleague whose address is close to another colleague's. The sender can use the send link to deliver it.

How to turn it on

Wrong Recipients Detection is off by default and needs Mailbox Access, which lets Paubox read each sender's history from Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. An admin turns it on in two steps:

  1. Connect Mailbox Access in Settings > Account > Mailbox Access
  2. Turn on Wrong Recipients Detection in Settings > Outbound Security

The toggle stays unavailable until Mailbox Access is connected. Once it's on, detection starts for every sender in your organization.

Available with Paubox Email Suite

Wrong Recipients Detection is available to Paubox Email Suite customers at no additional cost. It works alongside the encryption and outbound protections already part of your HIPAA compliant email.

What this means for your team

Senders get a moment to catch a mistyped address before it reaches the wrong inbox, without changing how they write or send email.

Read more: How DLP helps address the honest mistake and the insider threat