Netherlands ensures secure email traffic

The following parties are participating in the coalition: CIO Platform Netherlands, PostNL, KPN, Payment Association Netherlands, DDMA, Thuiswinkel.org, VNO-NCW, MKB-Nederland, Stichting Zeker-OnLine, Dutch Datacenter Association, Stichting DINL, XS4ALL, Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (Rijks-CIO), Fraude Helpdesk, Netherlands ICT and the Tax Authority. The participants in the ‘Secure E-Mail Coalition’ will work within their organisations to implement measures to secure e-mail traffic. Jointly established standards will be used for this purpose. In this way, both phishing and eavesdropping on e-mail can be prevented. In addition, they will further accelerate the use of e-mail security through mutual knowledge sharing and promotion. The parties involved invite other companies and governments to join and make use of the knowledge within the coalition. Marcel Krom, CIO at PostNL: ‘We ourselves are well advanced in the implementation of modern e-mail security standards. But we realise that all parties in the mail ecosystem need to participate to make it really work. That is why we are happy to join the coalition.’

Email popular but also vulnerable

E-mail is a very widely used means of communication. Millions of Dutch people collectively send and receive tens of millions of e-mail messages every day. Unsafe e-mail unfortunately causes abuse and damage on a daily basis. Fortunately, e-mail can be more secure. To do so, it is important that senders and recipients apply modern security measures and related standards throughout the chain. More and more parties are already doing so.

The standards supported by the ‘Secure E-mail Coalition’ ensure that cyber criminals cannot simply send phishing mails in the name of someone else's e-mail address. They also help prevent eavesdropping on business and privacy-sensitive information in e-mails. The open nature of these standards makes them available to all organisations. The initiative came about under the direction of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Forum Standaardisatie. The coalition has the support of Platform Internetstandaarden (Internet.nl), in which the following parties participate: Dutch Hosting Provider Association (DHPA), ECP, Forum Standaardisatie, Internet Society international, Internet Society Netherlands, ISPConnect, Ministry of Economic Affairs, National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), NLnet, NLnet Labs, RIPE NCC, SIDN and SURFnet.