For those that want to keep their emails truly safe, then there’s an option to encrypt them and assign them with digital signatures.

First step, you need to get a personal certificate, which acts as a personal digital identification. These personal certificates are issued by Certificate Authorities and there are a number of good ones out there some that charge for the service, and some that don’t. But once you have a personal certificate, which proves who you are, then you can consider digital signatures and email encryption.

Right, digital signatures first. These exist to verify an email senders’ identity. You have got a personal certificate installed and then you compose an email. You then click the option, included in many email programmes, to digitally sign your message.

When the person receives your message, he then goes through a process which verifies the digital signature, which has two effects. It proves who the message came from and also, important on many occasions, that it was not changed in transit. This is crucial in say emails that concern personal, or business agreements, when the wording, or an understanding of what has occurred, is of paramount importance.

But bear in mind that an email with a digital signature is not one that has been encrypted, this is another part of the process and comes next.

And by encrypting an email, you ensure that only the recipient can read it. You effectively scramble up the message and any attachments.

Now, to send such as message, you have to have the recipients public key on your computer. Public and private keys are provided as part of the personal certificate process.

If have the intended recipient’s public key on your computer, you write an email as normal, and select the option to encrypt the email, which is then sent to the recipient. Once they receive it, the recipients’ private key is married up to the message and as long as everyone matches, the message is opened and can be read.

With Windows XP and Vista email packages such as Outlook Express, any email you send which is digitally signed, is sent together a copy of your personal certificate, which includes your public key. So, this is a good thing to do before you send an encrypted email, as the recipient will have your public key. Likewise the other way around; get the sender to email you a digitally signed email.

So, slightly complicated, but if you want to send encrypted emails, than you have to go through this process. But, it’s wise if you want to go down this route, spending a little time on the various techniques and strategies.
You might also want to have a think about the levels of encryption, as this might be important to you and the business you intend to conduct via email.

Email Encryption & Digital Signatures – Recap

• personal certificate comes first;
• digital signatures verify an email senders’ identity;
• encryption scrambles email message and attachments;
• need public and private keys;
• need to consider levels of encryption.