Publicly trusted secure e-mail certificates

Entrust adds publicly trusted secure e-mail certificates to its certificate management service, enabling digital signature capabilities and encryption of e-mails and other documents.

“While there are many different methods to secure or digitally sign e-mail communication, these publicly trusted certificates enable a simple, straightforward method of realizing these capabilities for individuals, organizations and enterprises alike,” said Entrust President and CEO Bill Conner.

Based on the X.509 certificate standard, Entrust Secure E-mail Certificates enable standards-based S/MIME capabilities and are available in two distinct levels — personal and enterprise. As their names suggest, each is designed to provide the appropriate ID validation at price points for each specific environment. And each certificate is publicly trusted by today’s most popular Web browsers — all of which come standard with embedded Entrust root certificates.

The personal secure e-mail certificate is a smart approach for individuals that require non-identity assurance usage for digital signature and e-mail encryption capabilities. It provides e-mail privacy via encryption and also helps prove a message’s origination.

In contrast, enterprise secure e-mail certificates include validation of the organization, e-mail domain and end-user, offering the higher ID assurance level required in organizations. These IDs are perfect for digitally signing or encrypting e-mail communication, but also can be extended to digitally sign word processing documents. These certificates also maintain access to historical e-mails with automated, full-key history backup and restore capabilities.

Secure e-mail certificates for the enterprise enable administrators to revoke employee digital IDs upon departure to prevent them from digitally signing as an employee — a key security feature for today’s organization.