Email archiving keeps business messages for a defined retention period so they remain findable and unchanged for later review.
It is a retention and integrity practice, not the filter that blocks harmful mail and not the whole security program around mail.
How it works
Archives exist so a dispute, an investigation, or a legal duty can retrieve what was sent and received, including items people deleted from their inbox.
Access to that store needs tighter control than a personal mailbox, because the archive concentrates many people's correspondence.
Retention should be finite and written down, with a way to apply a legal hold without silently editing the message.
An archive that anyone in IT can browse without a reason becomes a privacy problem of its own.
Concrete examples
- A contract dispute retrieves the original approval mail even though the sender emptied the inbox months ago.
- A legal hold stops deletion of one custodian's messages while the rest of the archive follows the normal retention clock.
- An investigator exports a narrow set of messages and records who received that export.
Protective measures
- Set a written retention period for business mail and apply it to the archive, not only to the inbox.
- Restrict who may search the archive, and require a recorded reason for each broad search.
- Protect archive copies against silent alteration, and test that you can still open them.
- Honor deletion and hold rules together so privacy and investigation needs are both explicit.
Related articles
The broader program of identity, confidentiality, and safe handling around mail is What is email security?.
Archives concentrate personal correspondence, so the duties in What is data privacy? apply with extra force.
Keeping archived messages complete and unaltered is an instance of the goal in What is data integrity?.