Secure Email - FAQ

Q. Where do I find the current secure email guidance documentation?

A. Published on the Secure Email page on the Glasgow City Council website.

Q. My organisation has its own email encryption tool, do I need to register a password to use Glasgow City Council's secure email service?

A. Yes, unless specifically exempted the Sophos secure email system should be used to securely share any sensitive information electronically with Glasgow City Council.

Q. What software do I need to be able to receive secure emails from Glasgow City Council?

A. The only software required by your organisation to receive and view secure emails from the council is Adobe Reader (v7 or above), which is available as a free download.

Q. Do I have to use a different password for every person in Glasgow City Council that sends me a secure email?

A. No. Once you have set up your secure password you can use that to open secure emails sent from any individual or mailbox in Glasgow City Council.

Q. I access several different mailboxes - can I use one secure password to open secure emails sent to any of those mailboxes?

A. No. Each mailbox that secure emails are sent to will have its own secure password associated with it.

Q. My organisation uses a shared mailbox which is accessed by several different staff members - can this mailbox receive secure emails?

A. Yes. However, that shared mailbox address will only have one secure password associated with it which will open secure emails from Glasgow City Council.  Use of a shared mailbox requires sharing that secure password which should be avoided where possible.

Q. I've received a 'Secure email Registration Request' email from Glasgow City what does that mean?

A. You have been sent a secure email by Glasgow City Council but the system cannot confirm that you have a current valid secure password.  If this is the first time you have been sent a secure email registration request - follow the instructions to create a secure password to access your message.

Q. I've received a 'Secure email Registration Request' email from Glasgow City Council but I can't access the password registration screen.

A. Try to copy and paste the link form the registration request email directly into your browser rather than click the link in that email.

Q. I can create a strong password and enter answers to the security challenge questions but the screen won't let me register those details, what do I do?

A. Check that the screen has accepted that your suggested password meets the requirements and that 3 security challenge questions have been answered. Note that the answers to different challenge questions cannot be the same, all three answers must be unique.

Q. I have a registered PSN account, do I still need to use email encryption to send emails securely to Glasgow City Council?

A. PSN is only a secure method of electronic transmission if both sender and receiver are PSN registered.  You should securely 'Reply' to any secure email sent by Glasgow City Council and request that a secure email be sent to you by Glasgow City Council if you require to send unsolicited emails with sensitive information.  The system will automatically route this via the PSN network where it is appropriate.

Q. I have received an email reminder to register a secure password, what does that mean?

A. If you have been invited to set up a secure password either for the first time or a replacement password following an account deletion, you have 30 days to register that password before the email expires and will not be delivered.  You will receive an automated reminder email 5 days before the 30 day registration period ends.

Receiving Secure emails

Q. I have registered a secure password but still haven't received the secure email sent by Glasgow City Council, what do I do?

A. Check your email junk folder to see if the email is there instead of your Inbox (this may be due to your local email settings).  Contact your technical support to check that the secure email has not been quarantined by your email system.

Q. I don't have a PDF Reader installed on my PC and can't open secure emails sent by Glasgow City Council, what do I do?

A. You must have the recommended Adobe Reader application (version 7 or higher), installed to be able to view secure email content from Glasgow City Council.  Contact your technical support to request that this free application be installed on your PC.

Q. I've received a 'Secure email notification' from Glasgow City Council but can't see the attached PDF file that I need to open

A. Check that the email you have is definitely a secure email and that you have scrolled right to the bottom of that email (different email systems may show the PDF attachment at the top or the bottom of the secure email). If you have received a 'Secure Email Notification' email there should always be a PDF file attached to that with the email message within.

Q. I've received a 'Secure email notification' from Glasgow City Council but I get a 'Security Warning' message asking me if I trust the Glasgow.Gov.uk site when I attempt to open the attached PDF file.  What do I do?

A. Check that the message confirms the site being connected to is 'https://spx.glasgow.gov.uk', tick the box marked 'Remember this action for this site for all PDF documents' and click on 'Allow'. You should only see that message the first time you try to access the content of a secure email from Glasgow City Council.

Q. I've received a 'Secure email notification' from Glasgow City Council but my password doesn't open the attached PDF file.  I've checked that I'm entering the correct password, what do I do?

A. Try Recovering your password by clicking on the link in the secure email notification and check that the current password you are using matches what the system thinks your password is.  If you are sharing a mailbox another user may have changed the password and not notified you.  If the secure email you are attempting to open is historic it may have been encrypted using an older password (one which later expired and was replaced by a new password or one which you actively reset).  Contact the sender of the email and ask that it be securely resent to you.

Q. I've opened a secure email from Glasgow City Council using my secure password but can't see the file attachment that should accompany the email.

A. Check that you have opened the PDF secure email in Adobe Reader and not in your internet browser which may not let you see any file attachments.  If you are looking at the secure email content in Adobe Reader then check you are looking for any attachments in the vertical toolbar on the left hand side of the screen (attachments will be displayed in the tab with the paperclip icon on it). If that doesn't work, contact the email sender.  It is recommended that you save the encrypted PDF file to your secure filing system and open it from within Adobe Reader to make sure that the PDF is not opening in your browser.

Q. I've opened a secure email PDF from Glasgow City Council using my secure password but can only see a file attachment named 'winmail.dat' instead of the file attachment I was expecting.

A. This may be caused by the 'Format Text' settings on the secure email sent by Glasgow City Council. You should contact the email sender and request it be sent again in 'HTML' text format.

Q. I've received a secure email from Glasgow City Council and viewed the content, do I need to keep that email or can I just delete it from my email system?

A. After you have received, opened and reviewed the content of any secure email it can be kept in your email system like any other non-secure email or deleted as required.  It is recommended that you save the encrypted PDF file to your secure filing system and open it from within Adobe Reader - you can securely reply without the covering email that the encrypted PDF file is attached to.

Q. My secure password opens secure email content that I've been sent recently but doesn't open older secure emails.  How can I access older secure emails content?

If you have changed your secure password either by resetting it or choosing a new password after it expired, you will not be able to use your new password to open any secure email content which was received prior to that change of password.  You should still be able to access older secure email content using the password with which it was encrypted.  If you cannot remember the specific password with which an email was encrypted you may have to ask the sender of the email to send it to you again.

Q. Do I need to use the embedded 'Reply' button on the PDF format secure email from Glasgow City Council?  Can't I just create a response from my own email system?

A. A response to a secure email from Glasgow City Council will only be sent securely back to the email sender if the embedded 'reply' button is used from within the secure mail PDF file.  Neither a normal email sent by you nor a reply to the secure email covering message received from Glasgow City Council will be sent securely.

Q. Which responses from me need to be sent securely and which can be sent from my email system as a normal email?

A. Any email containing sensitive information or which has attached files with sensitive information in them should only be emailed securely.

Q. Do I still need to password protect any file attachments I send securely to Glasgow City Council?

A. No. Secure email replaces the need to password protect documents being emailed to Glasgow City Council who may experience problems opening password protected files attached to secure emails.

Q. The secure email I am responding to has an embedded 'Reply' and a 'Reply All' button, which should I select?

A. Any email sent securely by Glasgow City Council to more than one recipient will give the recipient the additional option to select 'Reply All' which will send the secure reply to back to the original sender copying in all of the additional recipients.  Please consider whether other recipients need to see the detail of your email response if using 'Reply All' to return a secure response to the email sender.

Q. I've clicked on the embedded 'Reply' button but nothing happens - how do I compose my secure reply?

A. If the reply button doesn't open the secure reply window it may be because the password used to encrypt that secure email has expired.  You can still access existing secure emails with an expired password but the secure reply functionality will not work.  You should contact the sender and ask for the email to be re-sent to you and securely reply from that email

Q. How do I add recipients to or delete recipients from my secure email response? 

A. You cannot add or remove recipients to a secure email received from Glasgow City Council or to your secure reply.

Q. Can I forward a secure email received from Glasgow City Council to a third-party securely?

A. It is not recommended to forward a secure email received from Glasgow City Council to a third party.  The PDF attachment on the secure email received from Glasgow City Council is only accessible using the secure password created by the original recipient and this password should not be shared.

Q. I'm trying to attach a file from my own PC to my secure Reply, how do I do that?

A. After clicking the reply button on the secure email PDF file to create your secure response to the email sender, click on the 'Attachments' button and then 'Choose file' button to start looking at files stored on your PC and click 'Upload' to select files to attach to your reply.

Q. Is there a size limit for file attachments to a secure email?  If my file attachment is larger than that limit what do I do? 

A. There is a size limit of 15Mb on emails being securely sent over the internet.  If you need to attach a file larger than 15Mb to a secure Reply, contact the email sender for advice.

Q. I've sent a secure response back to Glasgow City Council, how can I see the content of my email?

A. A copy of your secure reply email will be sent to you and should appear in your email Inbox (providing you have kept the 'send me a secure copy' box ticked on your response).  You may find that this email is sent to your 'junk' folder depending on your local email settings but it won't appear in your 'Sent' items folder. You will need to enter your secure password in order to access your secure response.

Q. I've sent a secure response back to Glasgow City Council, how do I know it has been received?

A. A copy of your secure reply email will be sent to you and should appear in your email Inbox (providing you have kept the 'send me a secure copy' box ticked on your response).  However, you will not be able tell if the original sender has opened your email.

Q. I've accidentally sent an unencrypted email reply with sensitive information in it to Glasgow City Council, what do I do?

A. Call the recipient and request that they delete the email without opening or reading it and re-send that information in a secure reply. 

Q. I've got an email containing sensitive information which I want to send to Glasgow City Council but it is not a 'reply' to an email that Glasgow City Council has sent me previously, how do I send my email securely?

A. An email will only be sent securely to Glasgow City Council if it is a reply to a secure email originally sent to you by Glasgow City Council.  If you do not have a suitable existing secure email from Glasgow City Council to securely reply to, please contact the person in Glasgow City Council you are planning to send the sensitive information to and request a blank encrypted email be sent to you so that you can reply to that and securely send sensitive information to Glasgow City Council. 

Q. How often do I have to change my secure password?

A. Your secure password will not automatically require to be changed regularly and you will not be prompted to change your password after a fixed period.  However, if you think your secure password has become compromised you should click on the link in any secure email notification and reset your password.

Q. I've forgotten my secure password, what do I do?

A. You should attempt to recover your password by clicking on the link in any secure email notification and answering the security challenge questions that you set up when you created the password originally.  Successful recovery of your password will result in you being sent email confirmation of your current secure password.

Q. What is the difference between recovering my password and Resetting it?

A. Recovering a password is preferable where a password has just been forgotten and has not been compromised.  All previous secure emails encrypted with that password will still be accessible using that password if it is successfully recovered and all future secure emails will be accessible using that password.  Password reset (which results in a new secure password being created), should be attempted when a password cannot be recovered or where the password has been compromised. A new reset password will open all future secure emails received but will not open the content of previously received secure emails encrypted with an older password.

Q. I want to reset my password, do I need to create new answers to the security challenge questions I set up previously?

A. No. You are given the option to either update your security challenge questions or to use the existing answers.

Q. I've forgotten the answers to the security challenge questions, what do I do?

A. If you cannot successfully submit the answers to the security challenge questions you will be unable to either recover or reset your current password and have no option but to request that your secure email account be deleted allowing you to register a new secure password.  Contact the sender of a secure email to request your account be deleted and a new secure email will be sent to you which will prompt you to create a new password.

Q. I've requested that my account be deleted, how do I set up a new password?

A. Following an account deletion you will receive a 'Secure email registration Request' email from Glasgow City Council the next time you are sent a secure email from Glasgow City Council.  This email contains a link which takes you to the password registration screen where you can create a new password and set up new answers to security challenge questions. Your new password will not open the content of previously received secure emails encrypted with an older password.

Q. Will my secure password expire if it isn't used?

A. Yes. Your secure password will expire if it is not used to open a secure email for 30 consecutive days.  When a password expires it will result in you being unable to receive new secure emails from the council until you have created a new password and also be unable to send a secure Reply to secure emails you have already received. You will not receive specific notification that your password has expired.

Q. I have already registered a secure password but have received another 'Secure email registration request' email.  What does that mean?

A. Your secure password has expired (which the system does not automatically confirm to you), and you have been sent a secure email.  The system recognises that you do not have a current, valid secure password and invites you to create a password before that secure email can be delivered.  This 'registration Rrequest' email looks exactly the same as the email you received the very first time you were sent a secure email.

Q. My password has expired and I've created a new password.  Can I still access the secure emails I've already received and securely Rreply to them?

A. You can still access the contents of secure emails received prior to password expiry using your previous password, however, you will not be able to securely reply to an email whose password has expired.  You may need to contact the sender and ask for the email to be re-sent to you to enable a secure Reply.

Q. I have an issue which the Guidance document and FAQ don't resolve.  What do I do?

A. You should contact the sender of the secure email for support if the published secure email guidance and FAQ document do not resolve your issue.