Business Procedures: Send Secure Emails Created: 02-25-2014 Updated: 04-15-2014 Page 1 of 10
Overview From time to time it is necessary to be able to share confidential information with school districts via email. When such situations occur, it is important to ensure that email communications are exchanged in the most secure manner possible. The Commonwealth provides a Send Secure feature to help ensure the security of confidential emails. Confidential information includes all correspondence, including attachments, which contains personal information for a member or members, or which contains any other information that may not be considered public knowledge. In order to utilize the Commonwealth s Send Secure feature, the email exchange must be initiated by a Commonwealth employee from a Commonwealth email address (psersrep@pa.gov). Recipients can reply from within the Send Secure system but cannot generate Send Secure emails without utilizing the respond feature unless they have another security process in place for use on their system. The following procedures will assist you in the process of receiving a Commonwealth Send Secure email and in responding to the Send Secure email. Page 2 of 10
Opening Secure Emails from a Non-Commonwealth Email Address Triggers Once email recipients using non-commonwealth email addresses have followed the instructions for registering to receive secure Commonwealth emails per the document Email Encryption Desk Reference for Non-Commonwealth Users, the following instructions may be used for opening the resulting secure emails and any applicable attachments. Steps 1) You will receive an email notification indicating that a secure email has been sent to you 2) Click on the securedoc icon in the lower left hand corner of the notification email
3) Type your Password in the designated space and click on Open 4) A view of the secure email will appear in a new window 5) If an attachment was included with the email, the attachment will be listed below the Subject line. If no attachments were included, you may process and close the email. If an attachment was included, double click on the attachment name to open the file and move to step 6. Page 4 of 10
6) If you opened an attachment, you will receive a pop-up window asking if you would like to Open or Save the file or cancel processing of the file. You may choose either of these options. Selecting Open or Save will give you access to the file, and you may then process the attachment just like any attachment from a normal email. 7) Be sure to close all folders and internet browser windows as soon as you have finished processing the confidential information so that unauthorized parties cannot gain access to confidential information. This can be accomplished by Clicking on the red Xs in the upper right hand corner of each applicable screen Page 5 of 10
Replying to Secure Emails from a Non-Commonwealth Email Address Triggers Once email recipients using non-commonwealth email addresses have followed the instructions for registering to receive secure Commonwealth emails per the document Email Encryption Desk Reference for Non-Commonwealth Users, the following instructions may be used for replying to secure emails. In order for the reply to be sent securely, these instructions must be followed. Failure to comply with these instructions will result in emails being sent devoid of added security features. Steps 1) Follow steps 1-4 In Appendix A: Opening Secure Emails from a Non-Commonwealth Email Address to log in to the Send Secure email that you originally received. 2) Select Reply in the Send Secure view of the email; you can click on either occurrence of Reply or Reply All that appears on your screen. Page 6 of 10
3) Type your message in the body of the email 4) If you do not need to attach a file to the Send Secure Email move to step 9; if you have a file to attach to the Send Secure reply, click on Attachments Page 7 of 10
5) Click on Add Files in the pop-up box 6) Highlight the file that you need to attach and click on Open Page 8 of 10
7) Highlight the file and click on Upload File 8) Click on Done Page 9 of 10
9) If you included an attachment, the Attachment will now appear under the subject line. Select Send; you can select either occurrence of Send that appears on your screen. 10) You will receive a message indicating that your email was sent successfully 11) Be sure to close all folders and internet browser windows as soon as you have finished processing the confidential information so that unauthorized parties cannot gain access to confidential information. This can be accomplished by Clicking on the Xs in the upper right hand corner of each applicable screen Page 10 of 10