The tribunal has introduced new software called Egress Switch, which helps us securely send emails and documents to non-secure email addresses. This is beneficial when emailing applicants, service users, solicitors firms and other agencies that are not on a secure network, ensuring the tribunal meets security and data protection requirements.
Why is the tribunal using Egress Switch?
Egress Switch allows tribunal staff to securely send confidential information to external email accounts (including Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail). The nature of the work the tribunal carries out means that we often deal with information that is sensitive, which we wouldn’t want to fall into the wrong hands. Measures such as secure postal services have been in place for some time now. However we are increasingly sending information by email, as this is quicker and more convenient for the people we work with. We’ve therefore introduced an easy to use piece of software that will help ensure that any information sent by email is secure.
Is Egress Switch free to use?
Yes. All recipients can view and securely reply to emails sent via Egress Switch from the tribunal for free.
How do recipients view Egress encrypted emails?
On their first use only, recipients will need to create an Egress account before they can sign in to view the email they’ve received. This is a short and simple process that involves inputting an email address and creating a password. Once this is done, an activation code will be sent to that email address and recipients will then be able to sign in and read their email. A step-by-step guide for this process is available on the Egress Switch website.
Can multiple people view the email once it is decrypted?
In general, emails can only be viewed by the original recipient. However, ‘access settings’ can be amended to allow others read access. This is useful in the case of group mailboxes, or where a solicitor needs to grant read access to colleagues or assistants. Find out how to make these changes.
Can Criminal Justice Secure eMail (CJSM) accounts still be used?
Yes. It isn’t mandatory to use Egress Switch. However we would encourage you to reply via Egress because of the various issues experienced with the CJSM accounts (e.g. small mailbox sizes, licensing costs).
Can Egress Switch be used on a mobile phone or tablet?
Yes. Egress Switch has a mobile website to enable easy use on a mobile device. There is also an Egress Switch ‘app’ available for BlackBerry devices and iPhones/iPads, and will be available soon for Android devices.
Can Egress Switch be used on Apple Macs?
Yes. The Egress Switch client can be installed on Mac OSX 10.6 and above.
Does Egress store any of my data?
Egress does not handle or store any information that users share. The information is encrypted using AES 256-bit encryption and written to a secure package which can be transferred to the recipient using CD/DVD, USB stick, local file, FTP, HTTP, or an attachment to email. The only information Egress keeps relates to user management, package management and audit. Egress considers this information to be sensitive too, so they have designed their policy engine to use secure transactions, strong authentication, and a secure encrypted server database.
Can Egress see my information?
Egress cannot see your information. The Egress Client software encrypts and decrypts your information on your local machine; therefore Egress does not have access to it.
Who can external recipients contact if they are having technical issues with Egress Switch?
They should contact the Egress support team directly using the following methods:
Email support@egress.com
Telephone 0871 376 0014
Further advice and guidance on using Egress Switch can be found on the Egress website.
For further enquiries about Egress Switch and its use in the tribunal, please email our tribunal mailbox.