MIDDLETOWN, Pa. – Mid-Atlantic Corporate Federal Credit Union needed a way to securely communicate wire transfers for its members and found the solution in a little box called the SecureMail Gateway from GlobalCerts. The appliance sits on the network and can encrypt and decrypt email going either way on the Internet and requires nothing more than an e-mail address and Web browser to do its job, the company says. The corporate's chief technology manager says that's what they were looking for. "We do wire transfer processing for about 400 credit unions and our system allows automated e-mail, fax and print reports for incoming wire notifications," says Bob Frank, vice president of IS at Mid-Atlantic Corporate (www.midatlanticcorp.org). "We had never utilized e-mail for this before because we didn't want to send a wire notification out unencrypted. Now we can make that service available, with no integration issues on the e-mail and other programs we're using," he says. The system is configured so that senders simply have to type the word "secure" in square brackets in the provided template to activate it. Recipients then respond with a pre-arranged passcode to be able to see the unencrypted wire transfer, says Jeff Sarlouis, Mid-Atlantic's network services manager. "There are no integration issues with anything we're running, and it was easy to get going. A gentleman from GlobalCerts came in and set it up within two hours," Sarlouis says. The Charlottesville, Va., company has been offering secure e-mail solutions since 1999, making it one of the first in that space, and has been upgrading its tools since then to incorporate new technologies and meet stiffening regulations, according to Jane Deshaies, vice president of sales and marketing at GlobalCerts (www.globalcerts.net). "We're a small company, so we're nimble and keep our ear to our customer base, and we're always looking to improve our products based on input from our customers," Deshaies says. That includes the SecureMail Gateway, she says. "We use a hardened device, an appliance with the software pre-deployed, so it's plug and play. You don't have to go get an operating system for it and spend weeks and weeks of IT time and money to use it," she says. The built-in software includes options for different security flags and administrative permissions and can accommodate certified public keys as well as several third-party content filtering devices that prevent "unsophisticated users" from sending out unencrypted confidential data, Deshaies says. Automation features are another plus, says Frank at Mid-Atlantic. "A lot of our e-mails are automated now," he says, "and with this device no one has to react to an incoming wire. That's a benefit to our members, since under the old method we either had to us a fax server or call the member about an incoming wire." Deshaies says GlobalCerts currently has about 150 customers, including about 30 banks, thrifts and credit unions. That includes $582 million Clearview Federal Credit Union in suburban Pittsburgh, where the SecureMail Gateway is used to protect e-mails with members. "Our employees continue to send and receive e-mails as they always have, only now they can send information securely," says Lisa Fitz, the CU's network services manager. [email protected]