S/MIME: Overview

What is S/MIME?

S/MIME is a private/public key pair system which provides digital signatures, message privacy, and tamper detection in a open, interoperable way. S/MIME can provide message privacy by encrypting messages that only the sender and the intended recipients can decode. It allows you to identify the sender of a message via a digital signature. Together, this encryption and digital signing help provide tamper detection, allowing recipients to determine whether a message was altered after it was sent.

S/MIME Options

Before you can use S/MIME, you need to configure it in your Options.

Enable S/MIME functionality?

If this option is selected, you will be able to import your personal S/MIME keys, read encrypted mail, verify digitally signed mail, and encrypt/sign your outgoing mail.

S/MIME: Personal Keys

Overview

If you want to digitally sign or encrypt messages you must have your own personal public/private S/MIME keypair.

Import Keypair

Import a personal/private keypair. This button opens a window where you can manually import your existing S/MIME personal public/private keypairs. The keys can either be pasted into a textfield or, if the keys reside in a file on your local computer, you can import them. If the keys are valid they will be inserted into your preferences and the window will close; if not valid, an error message will be returned explaining why.

Key pairs must be imported as PEM format keys (pkcs7 format). Pkcs12 format is not supported.