Sharing and protecting information
AFBI may need to share information directly with you and a range of external stakeholders, such as clients, suppliers, industry representatives, project collaborators, funding bodies and other ad-hoc interested parties.
This information may be in a variety of forms, e.g. financial invoices, tender awards, disease test reports or project correspondence or experimental data. Some of this information may be business sensitive or contain personal information and as such needs to be handled carefully to meet legislative or contractual requirements.
If we need to send any sensitive or personal information to you by email, we appreciate that there may be risks associated with this in terms of information security, both during transfer and once it arrives in your mailbox.
AFBI is committed to protecting its information and where appropriate, may use encryption to safeguard the information when using email.
Please read our terms & conditions below related to our use of encryption.
What does using encryption mean?
Encryption is a mathematical function that encodes data in such a way that only authorised users can access it. Information will be placed into an encrypted zipped folder which provides increased protection during transfer and if someone should gain unauthorised access to your email account. The information within the folder will need to be extracted using appropriate software and a secure password before they can be opened. The password will be refreshed regularly and provided to you separately by email. You must keep this password secure and we advise that you fully delete the password email from your mailbox at the earliest opportunity.
What do I need to do?
You will need to have the appropriate software installed on your PC and/or mobile device to allow you to decrypt the reports. You can then save these unencrypted versions to a secure location for future easy access.
Please use the user guide below which will give you information on which software you will need, how to install it and how to use it to open the encrypted reports. This is dependent on your operating system. You may need to get your IT provider to do this for you.
Encryption User Guide - opening encrypted files
What if I am having problems?
In the first instance, please make sure that you add our domain (*@afbini.gov.uk) to your whitelist or safe senders email list to stop the emails being rejected by your firewall or sent to spam folders.
Should you have any difficulties installing the encryption software or opening encrypted reports, please email encryption.support@afbini.gov.uk.
Please note, AFBI can only provide full support for operating systems that are still maintained by their developer. Operating systems which have reached end of life (such as Windows XP or iOS 5) will be supported on a “best endeavours” basis only.
Terms & Conditions - sharing electronic information using encryption
- AFBI, in compliance with Data Protection legislation and IT security protocols, may issue electronic information, e.g. financial, disease reports, audit documents, responses to requests for information, via a secure encrypted e-mail method, which may result in the recipient holding both the encryption password and the encrypted files together in the same in-box. If the recipient does not wish to receive the information using an encrypted method they should notify AFBI in writing to encryption.support@afbini.gov.uk.
- This written instruction will result in the recipient address being marked as exempt from receiving communications in encrypted form and once applied within our systems, will apply to future communications from AFBI. Exempt recipients can choose to reinstate the use of encryption at any time by writing to encryption.support@afbini.gov.uk and will be reminded of this option annually in writing by AFBI.
- AFBI shall have no liability whatsoever to any party including but not limited to the recipient and/or data subject to which the information relates in respect of the encryption method which AFBI chooses to use or the use or transfer of any data provided to AFBI whether or not it is personal data and whether or not the personal data is received directly from the data subject of such data and whether or not they have given consent for it to be provided to AFBI by a third party. The recipient hereby indemnifies AFBI accordingly to the maximum extent permitted by law. Further AFBI shall have no liability whatsoever to any party in circumstances where an encryption method is used including in circumstances where AFBI has not received a written notification requesting that encryption should not be used or where information is sent unsecurely not using encryption as a result of AFBI having received written notification from a recipient requesting that encryption should not be used.
- The recipient hereby indemnifies AFBI in respect of any claim, loss, costs or expenses which he/she may have or any third party may bring against them resulting from the use or non-use of any encryption method by AFBI in the delivery of information by AFBI.