On Mar 3, 2014, at 7:35 PM, John Robinson wrote:

> I also know what you mean about reading others email, a friend of mine owned 
> an internet service company similar to Aye.net (digicove) and on a visit he 
> showed me their email server...good grief scrolling across the screen were 
> all the emails from one client after another for everyone in the shop to read 
> if they were so inclined.  They didn't pay any attention to it but I suppose 
> if they wanted to offload these to another machine then they could search for 
> items of interest.  I also assume sniffers could steal our email packets and 
> allow others to see what we write and maybe there is a way for others to 
> "capture" the emails while in route and also read them...speculation but it 
> seems there is little they can't do.

It isn't just them. At any hop in between you and the destination, the email 
can be read.

> You mention that you post your keys for everyone to use.  Where, how do we 
> get them?  How do we use?  Not that I email you personally other than a 
> couple times, but it would be a way for me to learn if you can show me how to 
> get your key and I give it a try....you certainly don't have to answer as 
> this would become prohibitive if many of us did it.  

You probably already have it, if you use Apple's mail on a Mac. All my mail has 
a digital signature with my public key. At the top of the window there is a 
list of headers — including the Security header. (You might have to click 
Details.) This shows whether the message is securely signed. When it sees a 
correctly signed message, it puts the public key into your keychain.

On iOS, you have to go into the advanced settings for an email account to turn 
it on.

> For those we email frequently and we wish to encrypt do we initiate this by 
> getting our key and then tell them to also get a key or do we get both sides 
> of the key and somehow get their key to them?

In order for a person to receive encrypted mail, she must get a key pair and 
send you the public key. If you want two-way encryption, both of you must get 
key pairs and exchange public keys.

> I guess the logistics of how this is done would help as I would pass these 
> out to those I normally email.

The easiest place to get free public keys is Comodo. There are many others — 
Google knows about them. Look for free email certificates or free S/MIME 
certificates. (You don’t  want SSL certificates.)

> Finally, as long as I use Mail does it matter if I am using my Aye.net 
> account, my TimeWarner account or my Apple account?  The key would be through 
> Apple's Mail and not through the email portals I am assuming?

The certificates are keyed to your email address. You need a certificate for 
each different email address you use. I have four different certificates — one 
for each of the four addresses I use the most.




Attachment: smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature

_______________________________________________
MacGroup mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.math.louisville.edu/mailman/listinfo/macgroup

Reply via email to