What’s up with NTA 7530 – latest update

If you’re working in the legal industry, there’s a good chance the term “NTA 7530” looks familiar to you. 

A quick recap: the NTA 7530 was (yes, was) a proposed norm for secure communication in the legal sector. At its inception, the project was called “Veilig mailen” (“Secure emailing” in Dutch) and Smartlockr was one of the parties involved in shaping this norm and seeing to its correct implementation. 

However, the Dutch Judiciary Council (the instigator of the NTA 7530 norm and its main stakeholder), recently decided to halt its development. 

That’s why we’d like to fully update you on the matter and answer any questions this latest development may raise. 

Why NTA 7530? 

For starters, the NTA 7530 was developed to facilitate secure communication in the legal industry in the Netherlands. A main focus point was to make sure email communication could match or preferably surpass the security of a fax, still quite commonly used these days. Another important part of the NTA 7530 was to create a norm for receiving acknowledgements on sent emails. Combined, NTA 7530's overall goal was to safely replace fax technology, as it will soon no longer be widely available.

Creating a comprehensive and workable norm for an industry that still highly depends on fax technology is, as you can probably imagine, a major undertaking. 

As work on the NTA 7530 progressed, the Dutch Judiciary Council gathered important information on the market’s needs and challenges. Its eventual conclusion however was that widespread consensus on any norm currently lags behind. Development of the NTA 7530 has therefore stopped. 

Does the future belong to the fax now?

As you may know, the NTA 7530 was often mentioned in the context of phasing out fax technology. Even in 2021, the fax still features prominently in legal communication, leading some people to wonder if the cancelation of NTA 7530 will affect their ability to use email.

The short answer: no, the fax is not the future. 

Instead, the Dutch Judiciary Council has decided to apply the existing NTA 7516 norm, for which Smartlockr and by extension all its partners are already certified. 

What does this mean for you? 

If you work in the legal sector and want to communicate securely and up to par with current norms and regulations, you need to make sure your provider for secure emailing is NTA 7516 certified and can facilitate receipt acknowledgements of sent emails. Or put simply, a provider like Smartlockr. 

Whether work on NTA 7530 will ever be picked up again, is unclear at this point. Of course, when it does, we’ll be sure to let you know! 

If you have any questions about the NTA and how it might affect your organization, feel free to reach out to one of our experts!