9 Agency-to-agency / gateway-to-gateway secure email
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The S.E.E. Project Team recently tendered for agency-to-agency secure email systems and as a result interoperability tested three S/MIME gateway products. The three products and suppliers have been accredited for the supply of 'S.E.E. Mail' to NZ government agencies. The S.E.E. Project Team is implementing S.E.E. Mail among the three central agencies, and anticipates that other agencies will also implement S.E.E. Mail in the near future.
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The S.E.E. Project Team currently prefers the use of gateway-to-gateway secure email over individual-to-individual S/MIME because:
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we can protect most email in the short-term without the process of issuing individual digital certificates,
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we can content check email, e.g. for viruses, at mail gateways,
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the installed base of email client software does not have mature S/MIME support.
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S/MIME gateways were preferred to Virtual private Network (VPN) solutions primarily due to their ability to confirm the originating address of other S.E.E. agencies. An S/MIME gateway solution scales better than a VPN, permitting secure email even with potentially untrusted parties. Admittedly S/MIME gateways only protect email traffic.
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