Aruba S.p.A., the main Italian provider of cloud services and the leader in Italy for data centre services, cloud, hosting, trust services, e-mail, PEC (certified emails), has announced that the company Aruba PEC, which is part of the group, is the first Italian Certified Email Provider to be issued a certificate of conformity by an accredited CAB (Conformity Assessment Body) for the provision of qualified electronic registered delivery services based on REM standards that ensure interoperability at national and international level.
eIDAS Regulation no. 910/2014 introduced the definition of a qualified registered delivery service, whilst Italian Legislative Decree no. 135 of 14 December 2018 established the requirement to identify the technical regulations for aligning the national Certified Email Service (PEC) with qualified registered delivery services as set out in the eIDAS Regulation.
The technical regulations state that current certified email services must be brought into line with ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) standards in order to preserve the Certified Email success story, which is a one of a kind in Europe, and at the same time promote interoperability between the services offered in the European Union and, subsequently, the expansion of the service beyond national borders. Thanks to this significant development, it will therefore be possible to certify not only the identity of the holder of a certified mailbox in Italy, but of any natural/legal person living in the European Union, and preserve the integrity of the sending/receiving data and the date and time of the exchanged messages. In Italy, a Italian Prime Ministerial Decree is also expected to establish the time frames and methods for aligning Certified Email Service (PEC) with the new eIDAS-compliant qualified registered delivery services.
Therefore, Aruba PEC, which is the leading trust service provider in Italy and the leading e-Delivery operator in Europe, is the first Certified Email Provider to receive a certificate of conformity, which can only be issued by a CAB that has been accredited by accreditation bodies recognised by Member States, and is an essential prerequisite for submitting a trust service qualification request to the supervisory body – which in Italy is the AgID [Agency for Digital Italy].
For almost 20 years, Certified Email has been a fundamental tool for companies and professionals alike, and has given email communications the same legal effect as a registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt. According to official AgID data, at the end of 2023 there were almost 16 million active certified email accounts in Italy, and around 2.5 billion emails were exchanged during that year.
“We are proud to have taken the next step towards European certified email”, says Marco Mangiulli, CIO and Head of Software Development at Aruba. – “Being the first Certified Email Provider to receive a certificate of conformity once again reinforces our role as the leading e-Delivery service operator in Europe. Having already made a positive contribution to the development of standards and technical regulations at national and European level, we have now added another element that certifies that our services comply with the provisions of the eIDAS Regulation for qualified registered delivery. We are also proud to have a certified service that complies with ETSI standards, and in particular REM Baseline, which guarantees interoperability on a national and international level. Unlike other qualified services, following these standards is a guarantee of interoperability in full accordance with the principles that inspired the eIDAS Regulation and its subsequent revision”.
