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Egress Switch for Third Parties
The London Borough of Lambeth is introducing a new more secure way of communicating with third parties. Third parties are:
Individuals receiving a service from the council, assisting the council in delivering a service or delivering services on their behalf e.g. independent reviewing officers, foster carers
Companies receiving a service from the council or assisting the council in delivering a service e.g. care homes, charities.
Switch is provided by a company called Egress and is a secure email solution which allows the local authority to send emails and file attachments securely and encrypted to third party recipients. Switch also enables third parties to communicate safely with the council.
Third parties either use the product as web based email or download a small software file (Switch “client”) which will enable them to use extra features in the product.
Third parties will be able to email local authority staff and to respond to emails received using either option. However third parties will not be able to use Switch to send secure emails to other third parties unless they purchase a full license.
Staff from the council will send emails as usual from Microsoft Outlook and the first time recipients will receive this in their normal email solution e.g. hotmail, gmail.
To open a secure/encrypted email you must be a registered user of “Switch”.
When you first receive an email which is secure/encrypted you will be prompted to enrol as a user which is a one off process (see below).
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Click on “Desktop User”
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Make sure the radio button is clicked on the option “Create a new Switch ID (free)”, then click on next. This will enable you to enrol as a Switch user.
The email address is the one normally used e.g. [email protected].
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Choose your 2 security questions, with their answers then click on “Next”. You have a choice of which security questions you want to use….
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You will be sent an email with your activation code.
Once you have done this you are ready to sign in
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Accessing Switch
You will need to check your Switch email on a regular basis to see if you have a secure/encrypted email from London Borough of Lambeth or another local authority. To check your Switch email go to:
http://reader.egress.com or https://switch.egress.com/ and sign in at the top right hand corner of the page.
Your home page will look like this:
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You simply type your email as usual, upload any attachments you want to add and click Send Secure. Switch will then ensure this is delivered
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Controlling your email
If you want to you can choose the time period during which you email can be accessed. Click on My Packages:
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Click on Save Changes. This email is now not accessible to Robert (the recipient) between 13-14th April.
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Hints and Tips in using Switch
a) If you set up a Switch account before receiving an email from a Local Authority user you will not be able to create a message/package until you have received and opened your first email from a LA user. Once you’ve done this the Create Message option should then be usable. b) Switch allows you to forward an email received via Switch but note
unless the author of the original email has allowed the email to be forwarded to anyone the person receiving it will only be able to request access from the originator, they will not be able to open the content of the email or attachments.
c) You can change your password at any point by clicking on Change
Password (under My Account on the left hand side of the home
page)
d) If you forget your password you can click on “forgotten password” when signing in and you will be prompted through a password resetting process which only takes a couple of minutes.
e) You may notice you will receive Switch emails in your normal email
(e.g. hotmail, gmail) account. You can open emails here if you click on the “attachment” which is how the Switch email appears. You will need to login. You will also notice that when you open the
attachment/Switch email you have a reply button within this which you should use to send a secure response. Always use this, never
response to a Switch email from your normal email account “reply” button, it will be sent insecurely!
f) Generally it is best if you send and receive all emails by logging into the Switch reader at http://reader.egress.com or
https://switch.egress.com/ to ensure you are always sending and receiving safely.
Getting Support
Switch is easy to use but if you get into difficulties or have queries you can contact Egress. There are various ways of doing this. If you are logged into Switch you can click on Contact Support on the right hand side of your home page, this takes you to http://support.egress.com
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You can access various videos here which tell you/show you how to do various functions in Switch.
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Egress have committed to responding to users within 24 hours whenever possible.
More questions?
Your local contact at Lambeth for Switch is Ian Goodwin (Information Governance Manager). You can contact him via [email protected]
