Outlook and Replying to Digitally Signed Emails
There are three ways to send an email. The way most people use is to send their email as if it were a postcard. Anyone can access the email along the way and see what it says (and perhaps alter what it says) and there is no guarantee that it came from whoever it says sent it.
If you install a digital certificate in your email program then you can send digitally signed emails that both confirm to the recipient that you sent it and confirm that no one has altered it along the way. Anyone can still read it though. One problem with signing an email though is that if the recipient is using Outlook or Outlook Express then their program defaults to signing the reply (which it can’t do if they don’t have a certificate of their own). They can of course change to send the reply unsigned but probably wouldn’t know how.
With both parties having certificates the third method of sending emails where the content is encrypted so that only the intended recipient can read it is possible.
Outlook and Replying to Digitally Signed Emails
Tags: email certificate, outlook, security
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