A system and method for managing content for secure communications. The system includes an interface for receiving an encrypted message, a decryption module for decrypting the message into a clear text or other readable form and a key recovery module. The key recovery module recovers a key for the user associated with the encrypted message. The decryption module decrypts the message using the recovered key. The decrypted or clear text message is then routed or transferred for further processing or handling. The further processing includes policy enforcement, virus scanning, spam filtering and/or archiving.