Innovative services expanded
FI-TS continued to expand its innovative service offering throughout 2008. Our Secure E-Mail Service reflects the growing importance of e-mail in secure customer communications.
Secure e-mail service protects electronic mail
Committed to helping our customers manage their day-to-day work simply and effectively, we enriched our service portfolio in 2008 with new value-added services. One example well worth singling out is the new managed secure e-mail service. Electronic mail has all but ousted traditional “snail mail”. But difficulties arise when people need to communicate confidential information. Exchanges between banks and their customers often include data that needs to be shielded from prying eyes. It’s wise to encrypt mails before sending data such as credit details – given that unencrypted mail travels the Internet with about as much privacy as a plain postcard!
Confidentiality without complexity
What sounds fine in theory often falls at the first hurdle in practice. Many of the e-mail encryption solutions are so complex to work with that neither bank staff nor clients actually use them – even if they have encryption software on their computer. And, if people aren’t using the software, highly confidential information will continue to wing its way through the Internet like electronic postcards in openly readable form. But particularly for banks or other financial service providers, the fallout from a confidentiality leak can be dire. Once reports on leaked data are making the rounds of the media, the damage is done.
Our approach: secure e-mail as a managed service
Our new secure e-mail service makes e-mail encryption as simple as could be for our customers. The organisation does not have to install any special software on employee workstations or in its network, and nor does it have to require business partners to do the same. Banks and Sparkassen needn’t risk investing in systems which people are unwilling to use. And, with our system so easy to use, staff are far more likely to get into the habit of encrypting mail.
Unlike with local solutions, our customers and their staff can use our secure e-mail service without changing the way they work. As soon as the banker includes a particular keyword in the subject line, or increases the confidentiality level of a mail or particular recipient, our secure e-mail gateway automatically encrypts the mail. If the recipient also uses our secure e-mail gateway or a corresponding service, the gateway decrypts the message and provides it to recipients in readable-text format in their network.
The benefits of our Managed Secure E-Mail Services
- Secure e-mail traffic inside and outside the company
- Works with each recipient
- Works with any e-mail server
- Cost-effective complement to other mail communications products
- No expense of dedicated technical infrastructure
- No extra software on employees‘ workstations
- No steep learning curve for users
- Can also integrate into other e-mail systems
Flexibility on the recipient side
If the encrypted mail is not expected by the recipient, the sender gateway acts like a mailbox in the virtual mailroom: it stores the message and notifies the recipient via unencrypted mail that a confidential message is awaiting collection. The bank customer can pick the message up in a variety of ways – all without specialist knowledge or encryption software.
Hitting the spot
Feedback from the market tells us that our extended service portfolio is going down well. With interest from customers on the rise, our new secure e-mail service is really hitting the spot in terms of how users want to communicate. We captured our first projects in 2008, and in 2009 will be rolling out the new system in pilot installations at the Hessen-Thüringen Landesbank and at several Sparkassen.