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From...
How to encrypt your Communicator e-mail
by the TipWorld staff
June 17, 1998
Web posted at: 3:37 PM ET
To take advantage of Netscape Communicator's security features, you'll need a personal digital certificate, available for a fee from third-party certification authorities. Once you have one, you can digitally sign e-mail messages, receive encrypted messages, and verify your identity to private or secure Web sites. Check out the following tips for keeping your Netscape Messenger e-mail secure.
Get Personally Certified
It's easy to get a personal certificate. Open Communicator and click the Security button in the toolbar. On the Security Info page, click Yours in the Certificates list on the left to open the Your Certificates page. Click the Get a Certificate button at the bottom of the window, and you'll connect to the Netscape Client Certification page; if you get a security warning along the way, click Continue.
Netscape's page gives you information about various certifying authorities and provides links to them. Select a certifying authority, then follow the instructions to obtain the certificate. The instructions can be complex, so pay attention to the details. Also, certifying authorities have different levels and charges, so you might want to shop around before getting a certificate.
Get the Encryption OK
Communicator can tell you whether you can encrypt a message. If you don't have a personal digital certificate or if the person you're sending a message to doesn't have one, then you won't be able to encrypt your e-mail.
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To find out if you can encrypt your e-mail, create a new message. Address the message, then click the Security icon, or choose Security Info from the Communicator menu. The Security Info page pops up to tell you if you can encrypt and/or sign the message. Click OK to close the Security Info page and return to the Composition window.
Signed, Sealed, and Delivered
When you have a personal digital certificate, you can sign your outgoing e-mail messages. Signing a message assures the recipient that the message really came from you and hasn't been tampered with. To use this option, create a new message, then click the Message Sending Options tab in the Addressing Area. Select the Signed option and continue with the message as usual. When a message is signed, a signature tag icon appears next to the Security icon.
Tales From the Encrypt
With an e-mail certificate, you can encrypt your messages for even better security. Encrypted messages are scrambled so they can't be read between the time they leave you and the time they reach the recipient's computer. In order to send an encrypted e-mail message, you must have the recipient's certificate. You can obtain it either from a message the recipient has signed and sent to you or you can look it up, if the recipient has listed their certificate on a public directory (see next tip).
To encrypt a message, open a new message, click the Message Sending Options tab, then click the Encrypted option. The Security icon "locks" and its background becomes yellowish.
Other People's Certificates
If you'd like to send an encrypted message to someone but you don't have their certificate, you can look it up on a large public directory on the Internet or on an LDAP directory on your intranet. The certificate will appear if the individual has posted it to the directory.
To look up a certificate, open the Messenger Mailbox and click the Security icon, or select Security Info from the Communicator menu, to open the Security Info page. Select People from the Certificates list on the left to open the Other People's Certificates dialog box. Click the Search Directory button. In the Search Directory dialog box, select a directory, such as Four11 or WhoWhere, to search; click the drop-down list to see the available directories. Enter the e-mail address of the person whose certificate you need and click Search. In a couple of minutes, a Search Results dialog box appears listing any matches. Click OK to save any certificates it found.
Edited by Lisa Moskowitz
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