The official electronic registered mail (posta elettronica certificata – PEC)

The electronic registered mail - PEC October 2006 © CNIPA 2 Laws Law n. 59/1997 states that electronic delivery systems are legally usable. DPR 445/2000 (art. 14) states the principles for the use of electronic delivery systems and the legal value of electronic address. After two years of technical tests, during 2005 the DPR n 68 defined the characteristics of an official electronic delivery service, named certified electronic mail (in Italian Posta Elettronica Certificata, PEC) giving it legal value. PEC characteristics are well explained in the DM (November 2005) and in the attached technical rules.

The electronic registered mail - PEC October 2006 © CNIPA 3 The laws principles about PEC DPR 68 stated that an is considered: sent when the sender’s provider, after several checks, accepts the and returns an acceptance receipt to the sender; received when it is stored in the account of the receiver. Then, the receiver’s provider returns a receipt of delivery to the sender. DPR 68 established a public register of PEC providers giving CNIPA selective enrolment and monitoring duties.

The electronic registered mail - PEC October 2006 © CNIPA 4 PEC characteristics PEC, compared to traditional , ensures: recognition of the sender (that is to say the mail account); integrity of sent message; no delivery refusal; matching between the delivery receipt and the message sent by the user. Providers are required to have a logging system, which tracks and stores all system events for 30 months, except for the mails written by the sender.

The electronic registered mail - PEC October 2006 © CNIPA 5 Structure of PEC messages header Text attachmets Header: PEC Message tipe Text attachment header Original message or natural language text Info xml traditional system PEC system Sender, Address Object, Date PEC Provider CNIPA Docs with digital signature S/Mime structure

The electronic registered mail - PEC October 2006 © CNIPA 6 a)Receipt: 1.To send 2.To deliver (on request it may contain the original message or the message hash or a simple ack). So it can be – complete, short, very short 3.Provider acknowledge (sent by the receiver’s provider to the sender’s provider) b) Envelope 1.Transport (with orig. message, certification data and provider signature) 2.Anomaly (with error message or external PEC message, provider signature) c) Errors 1.No acceptance (formal or syntax error, virus in input) 2.Delivery error (time-out) 3.Virus (virus found on delivery) Types of PEC messages

The electronic registered mail - PEC October 2006 © CNIPA 7 1 – message writing, connection to the provider 2 – user identification, formal and security check 3 – sent receipt 4 – envelope and sending 5 – origin, integrity, formal and security check 6 – sent acknowledge receipt 7 – delivery in the mailbox (electronic address of the receiver) 8 – sent delivery receipt Sender’s PEC domain Receiver’s PEC domain Functional schema of PEC 9 –message reading

The electronic registered mail - PEC October 2006 © CNIPA 8 Message identification code of the user message (Message-ID) Date of the logged event Sender Object Type of logged event (user log in, sending, delivery, receipt, error event, etc.) Message identification code of PEC message (receipts, errors, etc.) PEC provider PEC destination addresses Data included in the log files

The electronic registered mail - PEC October 2006 © CNIPA 9 The directory of PEC of PA All PEC accounts of the Italian Public Administration and Government Agencies are published on the website In the example the High Court of Justice’s PEC address

The electronic registered mail - PEC October 2006 © CNIPA 10 Digital administration code Law decree n. 82 Art. 6: Public administrations are requested to use PEC (DPR 68/2005) when exchanging documents between interested users who have previously comunicated their PEC addresses. Art. 47: Public administrations are requested to set up and publish at least one PEC address. Art. 48: Instead of registered mail, administrations could use PEC, even in the case of legal notifications.

The electronic registered mail - PEC October 2006 © CNIPA 11 PEC distribution 15 PEC providers listed, other 4 or 5 should be listed by the end of At the moment 9 providers have set up a PEC domain; About 1000 domains registered under IGPEC (ldap of PEC domains); About 1300 PEC addresses of PA published on “indicePA.gov.it”; PEC distribution involves all market sectors other 9% Industry 18% PA 32% Health 2% education, University, research 1% associations, unions e federations 4% Chambers of commerce 12% Banks, Finance, Insurance 20% Welfare institutes 2%