press releases

De-Mail Providers Can Now Be Verified by secunet

[Essen, July 15, 2011] De-Mail post office box and dispatch service providers can now be verified by secunet. The company received the corresponding certification from the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Within the framework of tests required for the certification process, secunet analyzes interoperability and functionality as defined in the "Technical Directive TR 01201 De-Mail."

In Essen, secunet has been operating a BSI-recognized IT conformity evaluation facility for e-passports and biometry software for a long time. The laboratory is set up in accordance with internationally valid specifications for evaluation laboratories and meets the requirements of DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025. The evaluation field has now been expanded to include the interoperability and functionality of De-Mail providers. Following successful evaluation, secunet issues an inspection report and transfers it to the De-Mail-certified IT security service provider. Based on this report, the IT security service provider decides whether to issue the provider with the certification required for operation.

In order to receive endorsement, for which the certificate is a prerequisite, the De-Mail provider must demonstrate that specific organizational and technical measures are in place to prevent unauthorized internal or external access to information. The guarantee of interoperability means that De-Mail services must seamlessly cooperate on a technical level with the services of other De-Mail providers. A De-Mail provider may only offer services after the certification process has been successfully completed and the BSI has issued the corresponding certification.