encrypting an email

[rsys]

Though this question is not outlook specific, in this case i am using outlook
2007.

I have a personal email certificate from thawte. And I use that to sign an
email which I send to someone else. The idea is so that the other person can
send me an encrypted email using my signature.

For this to work, does he also need to have a digital ID (I assume this is
the same as a personal email cert) of his own? Technically, he needn't,
right? because all he needs to send an encyrpted email is my public key which
he would've got from my signed email.

thanks for clearing this up!

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I have a personal email certificate from thawte. And I use that to sign
an
email which I send to someone else. The idea is so that the other person
can
send me an encrypted email using my signature.

For this to work, does he also need to have a digital ID (I assume this is
the same as a personal email cert) of his own? Technically, he needn't,
right? because all he needs to send an encyrpted email is my public key
which
he would've got from my signed email.

The sender needs the public key of the receipient in order to send an
encrypted message. The sender needs a certificate only if he wishes to
receive encryptes mail.

 

[VanguardLH]

Though this question is not outlook specific, in this case i am using outlook
2007.

I have a personal email certificate from thawte. And I use that to sign an
email which I send to someone else. The idea is so that the other person can
send me an encrypted email using my signature.

For this to work, does he also need to have a digital ID (I assume this is
the same as a personal email cert) of his own? Technically, he needn't,
right? because all he needs to send an encyrpted email is my public key which
he would've got from my signed email.

thanks for clearing this up!

The sender of an encrypted e-mail uses the public key from the
certificate for the recipient. If you digitally sign your e-mails, you
give the other person your public key. They only need a cert if they
want you to send them an encrypted e-mail. The user that wants to *get*
encrypted e-mails gives out his public key to others.

 

[rsys]

thank you for the replies. As mentioned in your replies, I knew that was how
it was supposed to be. But what confuses me is it doesn't seem to work that
way! or I am still missing something.

I tried to test this via both outlook 2003 and 2007. On both occasions, it
doesn't let me send an encrypted message to someone (whose personal email
certificate is already added to the contacts) unless I have a digital ID of
my own in that computer. So I have been googling up quite a bit about this
and here is a link:

http://www.safecert.com/

(read the third paragraph from the end of the page."as you already know...")

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I tried to test this via both outlook 2003 and 2007. On both occasions, it
doesn't let me send an encrypted message to someone (whose personal email
certificate is already added to the contacts) unless I have a digital ID
of
my own in that computer. So I have been googling up quite a bit about
this
and here is a link:

http://www.safecert.com/

(read the third paragraph from the end of the page."as you already
know...")

I'm not convinced that what that paragraph says is true, but I'll test it
tonight.

In Outlook 2003, click Tools>Options>Security (not being at my Outlook 2007
system now, I can't tell you where in that version to look). Are any of the
top four boxes checked? In particular, if you toggle the third box (Send
clear text signed messages when sending signed messages) does it affect the
issue?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I'm not convinced that what that paragraph says is true, but I'll test it
tonight.

I'll be. Outlook 2007 tells me flat-out that I can't send an encrypted
message unless _I_ have a certificate, which it flat-out wrong. Oh, well.