Richtermail (judges’ mail) – secure mail procedure for electronic legal correspondence
ERV Richtermail is an ERV mail application that was implemented especially for the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe.
One requirement planned by the BGH was to involve the judges working in the Home Office in its internal communication via the Internet. Those responsible at the BGH were looking for an alternative to the non-secure e-mail transfer of data and files, which is, however, just as simple to use as an e-mail and which involves no installation work on the client website at the Home Office. The system was also to be integrated seamlessly into the existing mail system of the Federal Court of Justice.
In the BGH project "ERV Richtermail“, BGH judges working in the field are provided with a personalised portal website in the Web browser, which is similar to a Web mailer and which provides all necessary functions for receiving and sending communications.
The aim of integrating judges at the BGH securely into the internal communication structures with this project was reached in full with ERV Richtermail. Due to the existing multifaceted protective measures in ERV Mail, the risk of integrating external systems into the BGH communication structure was able to be decisively reduced.
Benefit of solution
- As simple as e-mail or surfing on the Internet, but secure. Web browser suffices
- High degree of security for judges and employers due to protected access and encoding
- Protection against viruses and intruders as well as against damaging software
- No misdirection of mails due to typing errors, no junk mail
- Reliable exclusion of undesired e-mails due to sender ID
Best Practice
Customer: Der Bundesgerichtshof (BGH)
ERV Richtermail was a reference project from ERV Mail, a mail system for the closed user group of judges at the Federal Court of Justice. The task at hand lay in setting up a secure alternative to e-mail transmissions between the Federal Court of Justice and employees in the Home Office. The system was intended to act as an enhancement of the internal mail system in the Federal Court of Justice and to send messages via the Internet, but not via the e-mail protocol, which was not secure. The expenses required in the Home Office for this were not to be higher than those for an e-mail installation and operating it was to be done along the lines of a “normal” e-mail program. AM-SoFT fulfils these requirements by using the tried and tested DocumentBeam® from the electronic court mailboxes as the basic technology. Every BGH judge with a Home Office was also given a personalised portal website which, in comparison with Web Mail, provides a communication centre, which can be reached at all times from the Home Office or when mobile. The communication centre provides the necessary functions for messages, such as mail inbox and outbox, sent mails, address book and new messages. Operation as well as the system and maintenance prerequisites therefore comply with the requirement, not to be more complicated than a “normal” e-mail. In sending the messages and texts, ERV Mail uses the tried and tested basic technology DocumentBeam®. In contrast to an e-mail, messages are sent in encoded form. As the mailboxes of ERV Mail are not publicly available mail accounts, the communication centre is also well-protected against external mail attacks. In addition, all messages and attachments are checked by the server for viruses, meaning that no particular risk due to the integration of external systems into the network of the Federal Court of Justice exists, either while sending or receiving mails. ERV Mail provides all prerequisites necessary to extend the internal communication or to exchange existing (non-secure) e-mail structures without any restrictions for the users, meaning more comfort and more security. Typical areas of implementation outside of the judiciary are also offered everywhere, where confidential information or data that needs to be protected has to be sent securely per e-mail and where value is placed on the simplest integration into the existing IT infrastructure.