Secure citizen communication in the Regnitz Valley – How the municipality of Möhrendorf improves data protection

The community of Möhrendorf, located on the western bank of the Regnitz River, is not only known for its historic water scoop wheels. According to the Bavarian Ministry of Agriculture, the town north of Erlangen is also one of the 100 places of enjoyment in Bavaria. This is due in particular to the Franconian asparagus, numerous sausage variations and carp specialties.

The Möhrendorf municipal administration is an important point of contact for citizens’ concerns, and not just when it comes to tourism. The approximately 5,000 residents also turn to the town hall for all administrative matters, such as construction projects, daycare center registrations or waste disposal. And increasingly, they are doing so digitally. For many digital applications, citizens have to transmit personal and sensitive data to the office. Such files not only enjoy special legal protection, they should also not fall into the hands of third parties. Secure data exchange is therefore recommended.

Until now, it was relatively complicated for Möhrendorf residents to communicate securely with the municipality digitally. Existing solutions required cumbersome registration and regular logins. The ease of use was low. For the municipal administration and its managing official Stephan Buchner, it was therefore clear that a solution for data exchange had to be found that was not only secure, but also very easy for citizens to use.

During the search, the municipality came across SecuTransfer from FTAPI through the recommendation of another municipality. It allows files of any size to be sent and received securely and easily. This is possible via conventional Internet browsers as well as via an add-in in well-known e-mail programs or via the digital mailbox SubmitBox.

“On our homepage, we have set up a link to a separate SubmitBox for each administrative employee. Citizens, associations, companies and organizations thus have the opportunity to send messages and files directly and in encrypted form to each administrator,” says Stephan Buchner. Registration is no longer required, which speeds up the process.

Every citizen can thus be sure that when using the SubmitBox, sensitive data will only end up with the desired clerk due to the end-to-end encryption offered. FTAPI’s solution is completely developed in Germany and all transmitted data is stored on certified servers in Germany. This means that the solution is also DSGVO-compliant.

In addition, the municipal clerks have integrated FTAPI SecuTransfer in their Outlook. Any outgoing e-mail correspondence with attachments is thus automatically secured and encrypted. “For e-mails without attachments, each administrator decides for himself whether encryption is necessary,” Stephan Buchner continues.

The FTAPI solution was up and running after just a few days in April 2021, and the new and, above all, simple way of communicating securely with the authority is also being increasingly adopted by citizens, associations and companies. “The topic of data protection is not just an empty phrase at our municipality when exchanging messages and data with citizens,” comments Stephan Büchner.

(Image source: Municipality of Möhrendorf)