Microsoft announced on Thursday that it is releasing Office 365 Message Encryption, a new service that will let you send encrypted emails to anyone outside your company, in the first quarter of 2014. This means that no matter the end destination of your email being sent via Office 365, Microsoft is adding another level of protection against unauthorized access. This would come in useful for sensitive communications, such as a bank sending credit card statements to their customers or a mortgage broker asking clients for financial information. Encrypted email messages to anyone isn’t a new feature for Microsoft. The previous incarnation of Office 365 Message Encryption used to be Exchange Hosted Encryption, a paid-for service for users to encrypt email without complicated hardware and software.