Uechi-Ryu.com

I have found using a digital certificate to sign and encrypt my email to be far more seamless then using PGP in outlook and oulook express. Installing is a snap but it is a little tricky to assign a certificate to a particular account, but then..not really.

I got a free certificate from http://www.thawte.com just to try it out. It worked great but to get my name in it (as opposed to just my email address) I would have had to jump through some hoops. I decided to buy one for 15 bux from http://www.verisign.com .

I decided to go wtih high security, so whenver I use my certificate, I am prompted with a password. you don't have to do this, but I do. Anyway, it's a cool scene, worth checking out.

Verisign doesn't make it easy to find the digital id section of their site, but here is the URL in case your interested in buying one as opposed to getting a free one from Thawte (just as good 128 bit encryption):

http://www.verisign.com/products/class1/index.html

Hello Tony.

Will you tell us more about email signing and why someone would want to do that?

_________________
Always with an even keel.
-- Allen

I've had PGP for years and never have been able to use it!

_________________
GEM
"Do or do not. there is no try!"

The purpose of encrypting email is a no brainer... unless the email is encrypted with your public key, you cannot read it. So... if Big Brother gets bored with his new authority and just starts reading folks mail just for the hell of it, he'll have a hard time allocating funds to decrypt and read your mail. Also, mail in your inbox is also unreadable.

Signing mail validates that the email is from you and that it has not been tampered with. For example, if someone has a virus which sends mail from their computer as you and I see that it's from you but isn't signed, I would be suspicious of this email.

With a digital certificate you can sign or encrypt or sign and encrypt all of your emails and attachments.

Right. One way around it is to not email the stuff you want kept secret. I have enough people keeping their eye on me that it doesn't concern me.

However, husbands and wives are cyber stalking their spouses -- snooping right into the very bowels of their most secretive privacy -- in the hopes of finding something, call it basic insecurity on their part, that they are snooping on their better/worse half, so like hiding oneself in the bathroom to attain personal privacy, maybe email has come to this.

I remember a while back, Tony, you were really concerned about wiping your disk and really more concerned that someone could read the erased data, even when doing a DES erase.

Guess what. Now with homeland defense they don't need a warrant to enter your house and confiscate your stuff.

Being naked may be indecent exposure, but we're all cyber-naked with our most secret parts in public view when it comes to the internet and for some that could be detrement exposure.



However, if the idea if digital signatures catches on, I'd go for it.

Thanx for taking the time to explain, Tony.

_________________
Always with an even keel.
-- Allen

Hey Allen, that wasn't my concern, that was someone else. I simply used PGP to do a freespace wipe. I still do occasionally.

Tony,

I know it wasn't your concern, and I apologize if you were offended if you thought I was directing my comments at you. I cherish your friendship too much for that bullsh!t.

Rather, it presented a juicy opportunity to regurgitate some of what I've read reacently in various cyber news articles and pointed that stuff out to help make some aware of what might be going on behind their backs, but definitely not you, Tony.

I'm interested in the digital signing, such as in the IUKF group mailings. There is one prime example where someone's mailbox gets corrupted and he inadvertantly, else someone emails out using his identity, viruses, trojans, etc. to everyone in his mailbox. I've received tons of 'em and fortunatly they are filtered-out before they can do damage -- so far.

_________________
Always with an even keel.
-- Allen

Give it a shot Allen. Verisign has a 60 day trial certificate.

Are there any free versions of this, even if they're not as good? I love the idea-- a lot-- but I'm not that concerned about anyone out there wanting to read my emails about who my friend is dating now.

sure, get you a free one at www.thawte.com !