|
Email security certificates
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
An email security certificate is an electronic analog of passport;
thereby, the mechanisms of issuance and use of the passports are
similarly
applicable to the certificates.
- Email security certificates are issued by the authorities with
undoubted credibility (compare with Department of State in US or
Home Office in UK).
- Basically, an email security certificate is an electronic
document with a lot of fields such as
- your name
- email address
- your public key (which you can safely share with others)
- your private key (this one you
keep secret)
- name of the authority issued the certificate
- digital signature produced by the certificate's issuer
- validity (expiration date)
- A certificate binds together email address and personal identity
data which in turn sealed by digital signature produced by the
trusted authority (compare with stamps used in passport issuance).
- There are revocation centers where you can revoke or even cancel
your certificate (compare with a situation of lost or stolen
passport)
- Email certificates are equally used to digitally sign email
messages, and encrypt contents of the messages.
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- An authority is someone who can clearly ascertain the user's
identity and no one would doubt it.
- Actually, this is always a matter of two: you and your
recipient must trust the authority which you choose to verify yours
identities.
- Because there might be quite a lot of potential authorities
(from your mutual friends to trusted third party organizations) with
different levels of trust, there was a need for the authority
regulating mechanisms and finally all has come to the hierarchical structure.
- There are a few top-level widely known authorities and a
lot of less-known ones which obtained their own certificates from
the authorities up the hierarchical ladder.
- Authorities verify user's identity by issuing a digitally
signed certificate which can be free or not depending on its
expiration date and level of confidence in the certificate's issuer.
- Normally, authorities attest that the public key contained in
the issued certificate belongs to the person with mentioned in the
certificate personal data, while the certificate's owner identity is
not verified.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyone can obtain his or her own certificate from an authority; there
are several very well-known and certainly trusted authorities producing
mostly paid-for certificates:
- VeriSign
(Digital IDs for Secure Email 1-year
certificate for 19.95 US dollars)
- Thawte
(Personal E-mail Certificates - free to individuals for
non-commercial use )
- GeoTrust (Client
certificate for 19.95
US dollars)
- Comodo (1-year
Free Email
Certificate).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
