Exchanging Confidential Information

Electronic Mail is our preferred means of written communication as it is fast, cheap and generally reliable. However, standard internet email is insecure neither protecting confidentiality or guaranteeing authenticity and for this reason we take additional steps to secure confidential material we distribute by email.

We will agree with you at the beginning of an assignment the extent to which you are willing to use unsecured email for communication of material that may be sensitive to you and will comply with your wishes. However, where material relates to a third party (e.g. psycholegal reports) we will only transmit material in a suitably secured format.

We currently support 2 options:

Option 1 - Secured Adobe Acrobat Documents

When we sent sensitive documents we will send them as secured Adobe acrobat .pdf files.

The acrobat format is the most widely used form for electronic document delivery and has been endorsed as a preferred format by the UK Government. acrobat provides a system independent format that ensure documents will view and print as originally created and provides extensive security options to secure sensitive documents.

In order to read acrobat Documents you will need need the appropriate version of the acrobat reader and the relevant password supplied by us. It is likely that acrobat reader is already installed on your systems, however, if not versions for all common platforms can be downloaded from www.adobe.co.uk free of charge.

The following security features may be enabled in documents sent by us.

• Encryption using 128 bit encryption. This ensures an unauthorised recipient will not be able to read it.

In order to access the document you will require a password. This password will be provided to you by telephone. Unless we agree otherwise we will use the same password for all documents we send you relating to an individual matter.

You will require acrobat version 5 or later to open encrypted files. (The current version is version 6.)

• The document may be digitally signed. A valid digital signature guarantees that the document has not been tampered with since signed and provides legally robust authentication of the signer.

In order to validate the signature you will need a copy of the signer's certificate our certificates are available via the links below. Before you rely on this certificate you may wish to validate it by calling us. Please do this with adobe acrobat open on a system from which you have access to the saved certificate

• You will not be able to change text in the document or extract text (either by cutting or pasting or by saving the document in an alternative format). We would not normally expect sections of our reports to be quoted out of context, but please contact us for advice if you have a requirement to produce an extract.
• You will be able to print and copy the document freely, within the usual constraints of client confidentiality. Where you pass on electronic copies you will need to relay the document password to any recipient but should do so by a secure authenticated channel. Please do not sent passwords by unencrypted (standard email). You may pass copies of our digital certificate to others but they will need to verify the certificate directly with us before they can rely on it.

Click on the relevant name to download our acrobat certificate: Ewan Davis or Alison Longwill

If you wish to send documents to us in acrobat format you will need a full version of adobe acrobat available for purchase from adobe.

Option 2 - PGP Encrypted eMail (for the initiated only)

If you have this facility you will be aware of it. If PGP is not familiar to you we suggest you use option 1 and ignore this section. However, if you wish to know more see http://www.openpgp.org

If you wish to use PGP please provide us with your PGP certificate(s). We will contact you by phone to validate them.

Click on the address for pgp certificates for alison@woodcote-consulting.com or ewan@woodcote-consulting.com.

They are also available from ldap://keyserver.pgp.com

Key fingerprints are:

Alison 1642 3BE9 1476 EC63 A184 431F 9CC3 E004 05AF 8018
Ewan 04BC B60F 549C DF6C 5F64 8DFE DE36 B769 B42A 2055