Comments on: Using a Digital Signature?

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:59:24 +0000

I use them for signing adobe acrobat docs.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:51:56 +0000

I used to use them but it seemed pointless, Very few people I communicated with cared whether the message was PGP signed, or S/MIME signed or not (depending on whether it was my private or work email system).

Worse still, some people I communicated with worked behind corporate firewalls that would reject *any* digitally signed content on the grounds that it contains “encrypted or illegal content” (sic)

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:55:39 +0000

@Ricky - I do something similar. It really saves a lot of time--particularly if your faxes come in as PDFs.

By: Devan

Devan — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:36:43 +0000

I got the Personal Certificate from Thawte. This was going back about 5 or 6 years ago now. Not sure if the software has caught up and resolved some of my issues now.

Things may be better now that this sort of self signing is more ubiquitous. Back then I think I was the only one doing it amongst my colleagues…

By: Ricky Buchanan

Ricky Buchanan — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:39:01 +0000

I use a “digital signature” in the broadest sense – a scanned version of my RL signature – because heaps of people email me documents to “sign and return” and the whole “print out, sign, scan, return scan” procedure is farcical to the highest degree. I’ve never had anybody object to me returning a document with my digital signature pasted in.

I realise this is insane from a security perspective, but I have to deal with a huge amount of government bureaucracy due to my disability and the help I need because of it. That same disability makes the print/sign/scan/return dance even more difficult because I need help with the first three steps – by doing it electronically it’s something I can do entirely myself.

By: Khürt Williams

Khürt Williams — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:03:10 +0000

A good reason for everyone to start using digital certificates for email is that since they are not easy to obtain and since they basically say “this email address really is me”, use of them would help reduce/eliminate spam. It would be cost prohibitive for spammers to create email accounts and since the email address is tied to an identity with one I click in my email app I could banish any email from a person.”ignore that cert” in my email app I would no longer receive email from that person. Also the registration requirements for digital certs would

By: Niels K.

Niels K. — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:56:01 +0000

@Mark I’m using a certificate from Thawte as Khürt did but I’m not yet a notary because I did not yet take the time to go to notaries/speak w/ some lawyers I know to get accredited.
I’m using Apple Mail and Postbox (Thunderbird Spinoff) on Mac OS X. Friend of mine does the same with Thunderbird on Linux.

By: Khürt Williams

Khürt Williams — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:52:00 +0000

You have to physically appear and provide documentation of identity. E.g drivers license, passport, and/or other official government documentation. More than one form of identification is required and once you accumulate enough points you get certified by Thawte.

From the Thawte Web Site:

Thawte provides a US$25 alternative process to the thawte Web of Trust verification system which involves Trusted Third Party verification. The Trusted Third Parties that you can use are attorneys, certified public accountants, online validated US Notary Publics and bank managers.

You can find out more here:
http://www.thawte.com/secure-email/web-of-trust-wot/wot_parties.html

and my notary listing is here:

https://www.thawte.com/cgi/personal/wot/directory.exe?node=14791

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:33:59 +0000

@Niels – Where did you get your certificate from and what mail client do you use? Do you ever have problems like Devan with people not being able to read your messages?

@Khürt – How difficult was it to become a notary?

@Devan – Hm sounds painful. Where did you get the certificates from?

By: Devan

Devan — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:12:41 +0000

I used them for a while a few years back – but it was causing too much confusion with some people I was emailing – apparently Outlook Express etc. would complain about security violations (!), and in a lot of cases, when people I emailed tried to reply to my email, they were getting errors in their email client saying that they could not sign the response. I believe there was a Microsoft Outlook bug causing this error and trying to sign their response with my certificate?!

I didnt bother to try and follow up or resolve, and decided that NOT having a signature was easier…

By: Khürt

Khürt — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:24:14 +0000

I’ve been using digital certificates from Thawte for over 5 years. I am also a Thawte digital certificate notary.

By: Niels K.

Niels K. — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 08:29:07 +0000

I have a digital signature for my e-mail-adresses. Because it’s s/mime-compliant and signed by a root-cert that is delivered w/ most or maybe even any mail-client, people do know that mails are from me. If they use s/mime-certs as well most mail-clients allow a simple way for encryption out-of-the-box and then you don’t send anymore e-postcards but e-mail through the net.