The official electronic registered mail posta elettronica certificata PEC

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The official electronic registered mail (posta
elettronica certificata PEC)

• Francesco Tortorelli
• Director of Interoperabilty Services Office

October 2006
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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.

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The laws principles about PEC

• DPR 68 stated that an e-mail is considered
• sent when the senders provider, after several
  checks, accepts the e-mail and returns an
  acceptance receipt to the sender
• received when it is stored in the e-mail account
  of the receiver. Then, the receivers 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.

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PEC characteristics

• PEC, compared to traditional e-mail, 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.

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Structure of PEC messages
traditional e-mail system
Sender, Address Object, Date
header
Text
attachmets
Docs with digital signature
S/Mime structure
PEC system
Header PEC Message tipe
header
Original message or natural language text
Text
attachment
CNIPA
Info xml
PEC Provider
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Types of PEC messages

• Receipt
• To send
• 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
• Provider acknowledge (sent by the receivers
  provider to the senders provider)
• b) Envelope
• Transport (with orig. message, certification data
  and provider signature)
• Anomaly (with error message or external PEC
  message, provider signature)
• c) Errors
• No acceptance (formal or syntax error, virus in
  input)
• Delivery error (time-out)
• Virus (virus found on delivery)

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Functional schema of PEC
Senders PEC domain
Receivers PEC domain
1 message writing, connection to the provider
2 user identification, formal and security check
5 origin, integrity, formal and security check
4 envelope and sending
7 delivery in the mailbox (electronic address
of the receiver)
3 sent receipt
6 sent acknowledge receipt
8 sent delivery receipt
9 message reading
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Data included in the log files

• 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

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The directory of PEC e-mail of PA
All PEC accounts of the Italian Public
Administration and Government Agencies are
published on the website www.indicepa.gov.it.
In the example the High Court of Justices PEC
address
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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.

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PEC distribution

• 15 PEC providers listed, other 4 or 5 should be
  listed by the end of 2006. 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

Health
other
2
9
Industry
PA
18
32
associations,
unions e
Banks,
federations
Finance,
4
Welfare
Insurance
education,
Chambers of commerce
institutes
20
University,
2
research
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