Armed Forces News

Air Force personnel now must encrypt any email transmissions that contain personally identifiable information. The service issued the directive — essentially a clarification of existing policy — earlier this month. The policy includes emails that contain full or partial Social Security numbers, age, marital status, race, salary, home and personal cell phone numbers, medical or financial information, and any other data that may be compromised.

Users who send such information would receive a notification that gives them the option to either delete the personal information, or encrypt and resend the email via AMRDEC SAFE, the military’s application normally used to send files that are too big to transmit via regular email. Its web site is https://safe.amrdec.army.mil/safe/Guide.aspx.