The Internet is insecure. Every email and instant message is passed along a whole string of servers between sender and recipient and is prone to being intercepted and/or modified in transit. Passwords transmitted over wireless connections can often be pulled out of the air by someone with a laptop nearby. Email messages can be forged to appear to come from any address using nothing more complex than Outlook Express or Thunderbird. This week begins a series of columns on securing your communications online by providing solutions to several key problems in communications security.

The Problem

Unsecured email provides no way to keep unauthorized people from reading or tampering with messages.

One Solution

Software already exists on every modern computer to establish secure electronic communications. You use it every time you log in to a secured website or transmit your credit card information to an online shopping site like Amazon. It is called X.509 and it allows anyone with an X.509 certificate to digitally sign messages and receive encrypted messages from any computer. It also establishes the identity of the certificate holder.

This week’s column explains how you can get your own X.509 certificate and start using secure email. You’ll need a computer with Internet access, a web browser, and an email client. For this tutorial, I’ll be using Firefox and Thunderbird.

Get A Certificate

The first thing you need to do is get yourself a certificate. Thawte is one company that offers free certificates for personal use. Thawte certificates will be automatically recognized by most computers. Go to the Thawte website and click Join to get a certificate.

http://www.thawte.com/secure-email/personal-email-certificates/

After you fill out the form you’ll have to check your email and verify your address. When your account is set up, go back to the website and login. Click “certificates” on the left side of the screen and choose “request a certificate”. Click the Request button under X.509.

After filling out the form, you will be directed to your certificate manager page. Click on the work Navigator next to the newly created certificate. You should get a message that says your certificate has been installed.

Go into your Firefox preferences (Tools > Internet Settings in Windows) and click on Advanced. Under advanced, click on Encryption. Under Encryption, click on View Certificates. Click on your new certificate and click “Back Up”. Choose a password and save the certificate to your hard drive.

Install The Certificate

Now open Thunderbird. Under settings, choose Privacy. Under Privacy, choose Security. Under Encryption, click View Certificates. Click on Import and choose the file you just saved from Firefox. Enter the password. Your certificate is imported.

You still need to tell Thunderbird to use the certificate to sign and encrypt messages. Go to Tools > Account Settings and click on Security under your account. For Digital Signing and Ecryption, click the Choose button and select your certificate. You are now ready to use encrypted email.

Using Your New Certificate

Now when you write a message, you should can sign and encrypt it with the lock icon at the top of the compose screen.

Stay tuned for next week’s article: “Secure Your Email With GnuPG” and more information on actually using your secure email.

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