| www.bancosabadell.com |
|
|
Banc Sabadell has introduced the use of electronic signatures in its email communications. Electronic signatures on mails guarantee the identity of the sender, who has received the validation of his email address via the electronic signature of Verisign, a digital certification authority recognised worldwide, while at the same time technical guaranteeing that the contents of the message have not been altered by third parties during transit. In addition, for easier and safer identification of the sender, each email message sent contains a random image associated with the addressee, with a number which increases with each remittance, helping to quickly identify the origin of the message. The image is always the same for a given sender and address, while the number increases with each mail. Example of an email electronically signed Below you can see how to distinguish an electronically signed email in the "inbox". The mail appears with an icon which marks it as an electronically signed mail: In the Microsoft Outlook mail program: - When we open the inbox, we can see a differentiating icon for electronically signed messages
I - When we select a message, we see that to the right there is a differentiating icon indicating that the message is electronically signed
In the Microsoft Outlook mail program: The following window appears:
By clicking on the button to obtain further details, the following window opens. If we click on the button to see the certificate, we see the details in a new window:
The following window will appear:
This indicates that the message is electronically signed, with a valid signature, who signed it (sender’s email address, containing the suffix "@bancsabadell.com") and the other information on the certifying authority Verisign. If we click on the button to see the electronic signature certificate, we can see the details in a new window.
In other mails programs, the procedure for recognising the authenticity of the electronically signed message is similar. Most mail systems which do not need a mail program to be accessed but are accessed via a web browser ( "webmail" type mail systems), do not have the above method for recognising signed mails. In this type of system we can use an additional measure explained below to validate the sender of a mail, although this mechanism for recognising the email sender is not as secure as the previous one
As an additional security measure, to simplify the recognition of electronically signed messages by Group companies, at the end of the signed message we can find an image, chosen at random in accordance with the addressee’s address, so that each addressee receives a different image which will always be the same unless they change their email address. A sequential number appears over this image, which increases with each remittance received at the same address. Thus, the address will always receive the same image at the foot of the signed message and, overlaid, the sequential number which increases with each mail received. Next to the image and the sequential number are the details of the digital certificate issued by Verisign which was used to electronically sign the message. Example of message footer:
|
