"Rome" wrote in message
...
I recently purchased a Email Certificate from Verisign for Encryption and
Digitally Signing My email and it works fine with everybody who has outlook.
Why is it that i cant send an encrypted email with someone thats using
yahoo? i was messing with sending myself an encrypted email, and got it to
work an hour later. why is it that in order for me to send an encrypted
message to someone i have to have their certificated stored in my adress
book?


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(only needed because the OP use quoted-printable format in their post)

Because you did not train yourself by researching on how certificates work.
You encrypt a messages using SOMEONE ELSE's public key. The only person
that can decrypt that message is the one that has the matching private key.
You digitally sign a message so you can give your PUBLIC key to someone
else, who can then use that public key to encrypt a message they send to you
whereupon you use your private key to decrypt their message. Similarly, for
you to send someone else an encrypted message means you have to get their
public key used to encrypt the message.

You want to send them a digitally signed message:
Use the public key from your certificate.

You want to send them an encrypted message:
Use THEIR *public* key in THEIR certificate.
They decrypt using THEIR *private* key.

They want to send you a digitally signed message:
They use their public key from their certificate.

They want to send you an encrypte message:
They need to use YOUR public key from YOUR certificate.
You decrypt using YOUR *private* key.

The certicate owner retains safety of their certificate by NOT divulging
their private key. The certificate owner gets a public and private key.
Everyone else only gets the public key. Since no one but the certificate
owner has the private key, no one else can [easily] decrypt a message
encrypted with their public key (i.e., everyone else only gets half of the
key).

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