Free Secure Email Certificates Secure Email Certificate Email Security Digital Email Signatures
January 15th, 2008 by Lance Cottrell
Free Secure Email Certificates Secure Email Certificate Email Security Digital Email SignaturesUsing email encryption is often a complicated and painful process. These days strong SMIME based encryption is built in to almost all major email clients. The cost and complexity of obtaining the necessary cryptographic certificates is the biggest obstacle to wide spread use at this point. Sites like Comodo make the process easier. While the security model is not perfect, any reasonable application of crypto and certificates will vastly improve the general security of email.
- Lance Cottrell
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January 19th, 2008 at 5:53 am
There are a number of other free certificate providers available that you should consider. I’ve just posted a review comparing 9 of them here: http://tech.niques.info/choosing-free-digital-certificate/ . I believe thawte is a better choice than Comodo because you can get your identify verified through the Web of Trust, and the certificate is also usable for SSL client authentication. If you are a little more adventurous try CACert but be ready for a more complicated install process (root certificates, etc).
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Thanks for the feedback, that is a nice article. I have a Thawte certificate. I found the process cumbersome, even compared to PGP, which is saying something. In general it is good to see a number of solutions so we can let the cream rise to the top. Unfortunately I think that few people are using any of these. Even working in the security industry I see depressingly few encrypted or even signed emails.
I think for many people it will be worth the money to buy a certificate. While a credit card is a poor proof of identity, it is infinitely better than nothing.
February 23rd, 2008 at 8:12 am
does anyone knows if there is any other information about this subject in other languages?
February 25th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I don’t know of any specifically. Are you thinking of a particular language?
October 27th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Well written article.