S/MIME encryption also uses a key-based approach, but it has some significant advantages in convenience and security. S/MIME uses certificates, which are similar to keys. The public portion of each certificate is held by the sender of a message and by one of several certificate authorities, who are paid to guarantee the identity of the sender and the security of the message. Evolution already recognizes a large number of certificate authorities, so when you get a message with an S/MIME certificate, your system automatically receives the public portion of the certificate and decrypts or verifies the message.S/MIME is used most often in corporate settings. In these cases, administrators supply certificates that they have purchased from a certificate authority. In some cases, an organization can act as its own certificate authority, with or without a guarantee from a dedicated authority such as VeriSign or Thawte. In either case, the system administrator provides you with a certificate file.If you want to use S/MIME independently, you can extract an identification certificate from your Mozilla or Netscape Web browser. See the Mozilla help for more information on security certificates.The certificate file is a password-protected file on your computer. To use it in Evolution:
