2007 Microsoft® Office System Plain & Simple

Understanding E-Mail Encryption

Your e-mail may contain sensitive or confidential information that you need to protect from unauthorized disclosure by someone who manages to intercept your messages. Encrypting your e-mail ensures that only you and the intended recipients are able to read it.

E-mail encryption makes use of digital IDs, which are essentially certificates used in Public Key encryption. Public Key encryption uses a pair of certificates—a private key certificate and a public key certificate. The private key enables you to create a public key that you can share with others so that they can read the e-mail you encrypt. Others can use your public key to encrypt e-mail to you that you can decrypt and read using your private key.

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Encryption ...