Policy based message cryptographic expiry

A method of managing messages in a messaging system, the method including: identifying a policy associated with the messaging system, the policy including directives associated with the privacy and integrity of messages; applying the policy to a message, the policy including configuration data that determines when the message should be expired; sending the message to the messaging system; using the configuration data to calculate the expiry of the message and passing the calculated expiry of the message to the messaging system; determining whether the expiry has been reached; responsive to the expiry being reached, sending a report message to the message producer; and responsive to the expiry not being reached, attempting to deliver the message to the message consumer.