[kman42]

I've heard a bit about encryption in the version of Mail.app that will ship with Panther, but haven't seen too much. Can people describe the implementation, preferably with screenshots? This is a feature that I have long desired.

thanks,
kman

[gorickey]

Do you mean the new "threading" feature? What have you heard about encryption?

[Musti]

Originally posted by kman42:
I've heard a bit about encryption in the version of Mail.app that will ship with Panther, but haven't seen too much. Can people describe the implementation, preferably with screenshots? This is a feature that I have long desired.

thanks,
kman

It is there. Still worked on.

[kman42]

Originally posted by gorickey:
Do you mean the new "threading" feature? What have you heard about encryption?

No. There is a PGP-like (is it actually PGP?) feature for encrypting/signing emails. I think it probably ties in with Keychain (BTW, has Keychain been updated in Panther?).

kman

[ph0ust]

Originally posted by kman42:
No. There is a PGP-like (is it actually PGP?) feature for encrypting/signing emails. I think it probably ties in with Keychain (BTW, has Keychain been updated in Panther?).

kman

i think they just tput gpgp in the os, but i could be wrong.

[sandsl]

From Panther Help:

Encrypting and signing a message in Mail
In Mail, you need the following to create digital signatures:

A signing certificate, including your public key, which identifies you. It's a bit like your name and phone number in a public directory. Other people can communicate with you if they know your public key. Every time you sign a message, your signing certificate is included with the message. The presence of the certificate in the message, with the public key, permits the recipient to verify your digital signature.

A private key, which is created and stored on your computer when you first obtain a certificate. It is protected by your keychain, and should not be disclosed to anyone.

To encrypt an email message, you must have a certificate for each of the message's recipients. The public key in each certificate is used to encrypt the message for that recipient. If you don't have a certificate for even a single recipient, the message cannot be encrypted. The recipient's software uses the recipient's private key, which remains on that person's computer, to decrypt the message.

You can get someone's certificate if that person sends you a digitally signed or encrypted message, since that person's certificate is automatically included in such messages. When you receive one of these messages, Mail automatically stores this person's certificate in the keychain.

Once you have a signing certificate for your mail account stored in your keychain, additional buttons appear in the Compose window, allowing you to digitally sign or encrypt a message.

If you type an email address for which a certificate can be found in the keychain, Mail automatically enables the Encrypt button.
Click Encrypt to encrypt the message for all recipients. You must have a certificate (with the public key) for all recipients. If you don't, you see a dialog that allows you to either cancel the delivery of the message or send the message unencrypted.
Click Sign to digitally sign the message for all recipients of the message.
When you receive a message that has been encrypted, a security header marked "Encrypted" with a lock appears.
When you receive a message that has been signed, a security header appears marked "Signed" with a checkmark appears.
When you receive an encrypted message from someone, you can index the encrypted message so you can search it just as you would search any unencrypted message, or leave it encrypted for security reasons. Choose Mail > Preferences and click General. Leave the option unchecked to bypass indexing.