diff --git a/ssm/crypto.py b/ssm/crypto.py
index fd7ce128..7fe6f176 100644
--- a/ssm/crypto.py
+++ b/ssm/crypto.py
@@ -160,7 +160,10 @@ def verify(signed_text, capath, check_crl):
     
     # SMIME header and message body are separated by a blank line
     lines = message.strip().splitlines()
-    blankline = lines.index('')
+    try:
+        blankline = lines.index('')
+    except ValueError:
+        raise CryptoException('No blank line between message header and body')
     headers = '\n'.join(lines[:blankline])
     body = '\n'.join(lines[blankline + 1:])
     # two possible encodings
diff --git a/ssm/ssm2.py b/ssm/ssm2.py
index f977ec08..6e6e6be3 100644
--- a/ssm/ssm2.py
+++ b/ssm/ssm2.py
@@ -183,7 +183,7 @@ def on_message(self, headers, body):
                                       'empaid': empaid})
                 log.info("Message saved to incoming queue as %s", name)
 
-        except OSError, e:
+        except (IOError, OSError) as e:
             log.error('Failed to read or write file: %s', e)
         
     def on_error(self, unused_headers, body):