European PEC becomes reality

A journey that began in 2018 is finally coming to an end: a certified mail valid throughout Europe that will allow European citizens, companies and public administrations to communicate with each other securely.

This is a revolutionary development as until now, PEC has been considered a 100% Italian service. There are other countries such as Switzerland and Germany that have developed solutions similar to the Italian one, but with lower security features and guarantees.

PEC stands for Posta Elettronica Certificata (Certified Electronic Mail), it is a digital communication with return receipt, which works very similar to traditional e-mail, but has legal value.
The special feature of this system is that it provides greater security because the content is always protected through encryption and the message or attachments cannot be changed during transmission.

ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) is an international entity established in 1988 that is responsible for defining and issuing the standards that must characterize all telecommunications, including email, in Europe in order to be considered legally valid throughout the territory.

Among the requirements of valid PEC in Europe that we already know about, we can find:

• the legal-value certainty of sending and delivery (or non-delivery) of emails;
• the time guarantee of the sending and receiving of messages;
• the guarantee of content integrity that allows preventing or detecting any unauthorized modification to the data;
• the certification of the identity of the owners of the services;
• open standards to ensure that the set of EMR participants can increase and spread.

Innovative elements according to Italian PEC concern the certain identification of parties involved in message transmission through “reliable and shared authentication mechanisms and enhanced security standards for the PEC service, with the adoption of additional levels of control and specific authorizations for access and management of the service.”

Don’t worry, you just need to follow two simple steps.
First of all, it is necessary to recognize the user who owns the PEC, and you can do this by choosing one of the following methods:

• SPID (Public Digital Identity System);
• Digital Signature;
• CIE (Electronic Identity Card);
• CNS (National Service Card);
• DVO (De Visu Online) with an operator;
• Directly in person by going to authorized counters.

On the other hand, the second step involves the activation of Two-Factor Authentication, which is made mandatory to use PEC on European territory. You will then be able to access your personal mailbox using the combination: username, password, OTP and push notification for authorization. Et voila! You are officially authorized to work in Europe.

Here’s everything you need to know about an epoch-making event for digital services throughout Europe, with Italy at the heart of this important initiative!