Deutsche Post digital mail gains "trusted" certification
Deutsche Post has had its digital postal mail service certified by German standards agency TÜV NORD. The verification provides the E-Postbrief platform with a “Trusted Site Privacy” certificate, which Deutsche Post said today meant underscores the security of the service.
It means evidence from an independent organisation that E-Postbrief “meets high standards regarding legal conformity, data protection and security”, said the Post.
Ralph Wiegand, a member of Deutsche Post’s Mail division board said: “The certificate validates the high quality and security level of the E-Postbrief service, and it confirms that our product conforms with the law.”
The certifcation came just under two months after Deutsche Post was banned by a German court from advertising its E-Postbrief service as a direct alternative to the sending of physical mail – the court’s opinion being that digital mail could not send legally-binding agreements in the same way as physical mail.
Certificate
TÜV NORD is one of four standards agencies in Germany able to bestow the respected TÜV seal on a product or service. E-Postbrief was authenticated by its IT-specialist subsidiary TÜV Informationstechnik GmbH (TÜViT).
Deutsche Post said the certification process involved evaluation of billing and support processes, legal conformity, reliability of processing, ease of use, data protection and security.
The platform was found to meet all legal requirements “and even exceeds them in some areas”, said Deutsche Post.
The certificate from TÜViT is now valid until June 2013, but Deutsche Post said it will submit the product for an annual review.
Antonius Sommer, Managing Director of TÜViT, said: “The TÜViT certificate attests to the use of very high security and data-protection standards into which end consumers can put their trust.
“The annual reviews will ensure that this safety and data-protection level is maintained over the long term.” No review was conducted of the hybrid delivery of the E-Postbrief, the Postident process, customer service and added-value services,” said Sommer.
The E-Postbrief received a TÜViT certificate last December for the security of its information management system, based on the global ISO 27001 standard.
