Media statement - S.E.E. Mail is World Class

Media statement

S.E.E. Mail is World Class

30 Jan 2002

The standards set by S.E.E. Mail are making it easy for organisations to exchange secure e-mail. Attention is being paid to the S.E.E. project from overseas, with requests for further information from as far afield as the U.S. and Ireland.

"Several overseas projects have trialled systems similar to our gateway-to-gateway system, but we seem to be the only one to have successfully put it into operation", says Mike Pearson, S.E.E. Project Manager.

In other projects the use of individual-to-individual encrypted e-mail in open communities has hit a virtual dead end, due to long term issues of access to encrypted material, problems with corporate checking for malicious content, and immature S/MIME support across the wide variety of installed e-mail client packages being used by recipients.

Government departments are steadily adopting the secure e-mail phase of the government's internal Secure Electronic Environment (S.E.E.) project. "End users don't have to do much more beyond hitting the send button like normal." says Mike Pearson, "The only time they'll probably notice, is when they receive a warning message in cases such as an e-mail being altered in transit".

The E-government Unit is currently completing the requirements for S.E.E. Mail Version 2, which will enable the exchange of secure e-mail between government agencies and their business partners. The Unit is currently accepting expressions of interest from additional vendors who wish to participate in the next round of S.E.E. Mail accreditation.

Contact: Brendan Boyle Director E-government Unit of the State Services Commission
(04 495 6719)
Contact for technical content: Mike Pearson (04 495 6769)

Related links:
www.see.govt.nz/mail/
www.security.govt.nz