Jan, On Thursday, December 05, 2002, Jan Rifkinson wrote in <[EMAIL PROTECTED]">mid:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
JR> I'm not sure I understand the value to the JR> msg receiver to know that I issued myself a JR> MIME certificate. Jan, if you're writing about the free certificates that are available from, e.g., Thawte, I think there are two answers: One, is that it verifies the authenticity of your email address, because the process verifies that the address exists, and proves a connection between that address and the sender of the letters to which you've attached the certificate. It does not prove that you are who you say you are, nor that you should be using that email address; it only shows a physical thread from the application process to the email address to the use of the certificate. Which leads to the other answer, which is that it does not really have much value at all. Theoretically, there could be situations where one needs to assure another that an email address is authentic. I cannot imagine any situation like that, though, where the other person would not need to be assured of more information also, which the free certificate does not provide. If someone else has more info, I'd be interested to read it. (And if you were talking about a different kind of certificate altogether, then "Never Mind....." :-) -- JN ________________________________________________ Current version is 1.61 | "Using TBUDL" information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
