2. Secure Electronic Services: Delivering the reach
        and authority of the United States Postal Service
        to customers in the e-commerce world.
The Postal Service has launched new services that leverage today's technology to electrically transmit important communications and still provide the same level of confidence and security our customers expect from hard copy mail.

PosteCS is a Web-based file-delivery service that lets users send electronic files that are too large for most commercial e-mail systems. PosteCS notifies a recipient where to pick up a document at a secure online location. The service allows senders to protect the files with passwords and provides a return receipt that lets the sender know that the recipient has received the file. Commercial and government customers use the service. PosteCS gives senders more control over their documents end-to-end security, confidentiality and integrity.

In a joint venture model, the Postal Service has partnered with firms, including IBM Corp. and AT&T, to ensure the success of its NetPost.Certified service, the equivalent of certified e-mail. The service enables public-sector personnel to securely transmit sensitive information in digital form to government agencies. Both the sender and receiver of NetPost.Certified messages receive electronic certificates certifying that their file has been received and has not been tampered with. The service is being used in 46 post offices nationwide by employees from the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It is also being piloted by the FBI. The Postal Service also is talking with the states of Texas, North Dakota, Maryland and others interested in adopting it.

The Postal Service’s Electronic Postmark® (EPM) digitally time stamps and signs electronic files and detects any subsequent tampering of the postmarked document or transaction. The EPM is integrated into PosteCS, eBillPay, Netpost.Certified and other commercial secure electronic services that enable the Postal Service to provide customers the same level of confidence they value today in the postmarking of hard copy mail.

In September 2000, the Postal Service nationally launched its hybrid mail service, NetPost Mailing Online. This service allows customers to prepare electronic communications on their personal computers and electronically transmit them via the Internet to the Postal Service along with their mailing lists. Once received, the communication is routed to a network of printers, printed, inserted envelopes and entered into the mail stream at a local Post Office. This service is available to customers anytime, anywhere and saves them both time in preparation and speed in delivery.