Secure Mail Registration and Viewing Procedures May 2011 For External Secure Mail Recipients
Contents This document provides a brief, end user oriented overview of the Associated Banc Corp s Secure Email system. It is intended for recipients of secure email sent by Associated Banc Corp employees. Introduction... 3 Why Secure Mail?... 3 Which Emails will be Encrypted?... 3 Registering in Associated Banc Corp s Secure Email System... 4 The Envelope Greeting... 4 The Envelope... 5 Registration Page... 6 How do I Open a Secure Email Once I m Registered?... 8 Viewing the Message... 10 Replying to a Secure Envelope... 11 Resetting Your Secure Mail Password... 13 Frequently Asked Questions... 17
Introduction Associated Banc Corp (ABC) has implemented a secure electronic mail system to provide you the integrity and confidentiality needed to protect information being transmitted via email. This system is intended to provide a secure method for email communication between ABC employees and external recipients. This solution secures and encrypts all email communications when designated by the ABC email user. A designated ABC employee can initiate email to anyone else with an Internet email address. Recipients of these emails can retrieve and reply securely to the messages by following the procedures in this document. These recipients can also send secure messages by replying to a secure message from an ABC employee. Why Secure Mail? When someone sends you an email, the email typically travels over the internet in order to be delivered. Email that travels over the internet is inherently insecure. Consequently, it can be read fairly easily by someone other than you. In many cases, the fact that the email might be read by someone else might not be a cause for concern. However, when financial information, health care information, or other sensitive information travels by email, interception by an unauthorized person may compromise your privacy, may violate the sending organization s internal security policies, and may violate state and federal privacy regulations. Because of these concerns, we are implementing a change in the way we deliver sensitive, private email. This change will allow email to be encrypted before it is sent over the internet so that only the intended recipient will be able to open the message. Which Emails will be Encrypted? In some cases, the sender of the email will make the decision to encrypt the email before sending it to you. The sender may know that either the email or an attachment contains sensitive information and thus requires encryption. In other cases, after the email is sent, but before it travels over the internet, it will be scanned for special terms (such as a Social Security number) that indicate that the email likely contains sensitive information. In these cases, the system will determine whether or not to encrypt the email before sending it to you. There may be rare instances where you receive an email that has been encrypted, yet appears to contain no sensitive information. When this happens, it is because the email system has determined that the email contains sensitive information. The system may simply be playing it safe by encrypting an email that it thinks might have sensitive information, rather than letting it travel over the internet unsecured.
Registering in Associated Banc Corp s Secure Email System The secure emails we send are called Secure Envelopes. In order for a Secure Envelope to be opened by you, you first need to register with our secure email system. The registration process will take approximately one minute. The Envelope Greeting When an ABC employee sends you an encrypted email message, you will not get the text of the message directly into your mailbox. You will only receive the Secure Envelope that comes with an attachment, generally named securedoc.html. To open the encrypted part of the message, either double click on the attachment, or download it on the local machine by right clicking and then saving it. The email will look similar to this:
The Envelope The secure message opens in a browser as a Secure Envelope. If you have saved the securedoc.html attachment on your local hard drive, you may open it by double clicking on the html file. Based on our configuration, the Secure Envelope contains date/time and authentication information. Since, Secure Envelopes require a password, first time users must be registered. Prior to registering in the system, a Register button will appear on the face of the Secure Envelope that can be clicked to go to the registration page. The Secure Envelope securedoc.html looks something like this: Clicking on the Register button will take you to our registration website, where you will be asked for your name and to make up a password that only you will know.
Registration Page If you ever forget your password, you ll be asked to enter your email address in order to reset your password. The Personal Security Phrase can be whatever you choose and is simply a method to assure you that any communications returned from the server are genuine. This is an anti phishing mechanism.
An account has been created and registration is now complete which can be confirmed by the following screen: Close this window, go to the secure envelope window and log in with the password that you just created to retrieve the secure message. NOTE: Each account and password created is specific to a person / email recipient and is not meant to be shared. Each secure mail user must be registered and have their own account and unique password. Again, the entire registration process will generally take about one minute and is done with a secure internet connection. You will only have to register once, no matter how many secure emails you receive. You may now open the original secure message and access it securely.
How do I Open a Secure Email Once I m Registered? When you receive a Secure Envelope (our term for a secure email), you will receive an email like what you see below. The email will have an attachment, usually named securedoc.html.
After you open the email, double click on the attachment. NOTE: This process is the same whether the secure message was sent to a single or multiple recipients. You will then be asked for your password: Simply type in your password (the one you created on the new user registration site) and click the OPEN button. If that will not work, try to click on the Open Online link in the bottom right corner of the envelope.
Viewing the Message Once you open the Secure Envelope, you will see the contents of the original message, including any attachments. What you will see will look something like this: You can now read the message, and by clicking on the attachments (if there are any) you can open or save them. You can also reply to the message securely.
Replying to a Secure Envelope When you open your Secure Envelope, you will see the contents of the message and a Secure Reply button. If you wish to securely reply to this message, simply click the Reply button and you will be brought to a secure web site where you can construct your reply. The page will look similar to this: Simply type in your response and click Send.
You will receive the following screen once you have successfully sent the reply.
Resetting Your Secure Mail Password If you forget your password, you can reset it by going to a web page for resetting passwords. A link to this page can be found on the email that accompanies the Secure Envelope, or on the Secure Envelope itself. Click the Forgot Password? link. When prompted, type in your email address.
A temporary password will be sent to the email address that you entered. Your temporary password can be found when you open the email that was sent to your inbox.
Click on the link in the email that will allow you to log into Associated Banc Corp s secure mail solution with the temporary password and create a new password. Please note: The temporary password is only valid for six hours so you need to change your password within that time or you will have to start the password reset process from the beginning. Log in with your full email address and the temporary password. Enter the temporary password followed by a new password. You must also confirm the password then click on change. This new password must meet the minimum requirements which are: Enter a minimum of 7 characters or numbers. Passwords are case sensitive. Your password must contain both letters and numbers.
You will receive the following screen once you have successfully changed your password. NOTE: If you are still not able to access your secure message at this point, please work with the sender of the secure email at Associated Bank to resolve this issue. This process may involve contacting Associated Bank s Technical Help Desk.
Frequently Asked Questions How do I reset my password? Please see Resetting Your Secure Mail Password section above. Do I need to install any software on my computer in order to open and read a Secure Envelope? You need to have Java Script enabled and a web browser such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, or Safari. When I click the OPEN button to view a message, it does not work? If clicking on the OPEN button does not work, try to click on the Open Online link in the bottom right corner of the envelope to view the message. When I send a Secure Reply, will it be in my Sent Items folder? No, because your Secure Reply is not sent using your email system, it will not keep a copy in your Sent Items folder. Who do I contact with questions? Please contact the sender of the secure email with any questions. How long are secure message available for retrieval? 180 days.