Security

• Security tips
• The CRA
• Your part
• Browsers
• What is TLS encryption?
• Confidentiality

Security requires a partnership between two parties - in this case, you and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

Security tips

Here are some tips to ensure that your corporation tax return remains confidential:

• Keep your Web Access Code or EFILE On-Line number and password secret! Your Corporation Internet Filing account can only be accessed with your Web Access Code or EFILE On-Line number and password.
• If you leave your computer on after completing activities in a secure area of the site, clear the cache. You should also turn off and restart the browser to eliminate copies of webpages that may have been stored on your computer's hard drive.
• Never send confidential information such as your Business Number, Web Access Code, or EFILE On-Line number and password, via Internet email. Our Internet email does not have secure transmission capabilities.

The CRA

At the CRA, we are responsible for the security of our Corporation Internet Filing website, and we guarantee that your corporation information is stored securely on our computers.

We are also responsible for ensuring that your corporation information is transmitted securely to our web servers.

State-of-the-art encryption technology and security procedures allow us to protect your corporation information at all times.

While every possible effort has been made to ensure the safety and integrity of transactions at our website, the Internet exists as a public network, and therefore is outside our control.

Your part

You'll need to give us three pieces of identification to access our confidential site and services. These three pieces of identification make up your electronic signature. Make sure that you keep each piece of your identification confidential, so that others may not use your electronic signature.

Browsers

You have to use approved security protocols to access our site. The CRA limits access to browsers supporting Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 or higher.

After you complete a secure transaction, you should clear your browser cache or shut down and restart your browser. Information stored in the browser cache isn't encrypted, so clearing it helps to ensure that your information won't be compromised by others.

What is TLS encryption?

TLS is a protocol that provides authentication, confidentially, and data integrity between communicating applications. The CRA uses TLS to ensure the delivery of data in a secure and reliable manner.

Using the appropriate safeguards and configuration, TLS provides a method of transmitting data securely across networks. Effective implementation of TLS will assist in mitigating the most serious threats with web-based applications such as eavesdropping, data tampering, and message forgery.

In simple terms, your income tax information is broken down into small separate packets of information, and TLS encrypts each packet. The encrypted packets are sent into the Internet individually, like pieces of a puzzle, each individually addressed. Once they've all reached the safety of our secure Web server, they're reassembled and decrypted.

This is a typical requirement for web-based services, such as online banking or shopping, where securing personal information is a priority. When you access our Corporation Internet Filing transmission page, our server will verify your browser's encryption capability and that your session cookie is set. No other information will be accessed.

Confidentiality

We're taking precautions to ensure the confidentiality of the data transmitted through Corporation Internet Filing. Using TLS encryption protects information by verifying the identity of the parties on both ends of the Internet connection, before confidential information is exchanged. Your electronic signature is identified when you log on to the transmission webpage. Throughout the session, extensive measures maintain security.