What is Signed Email?
"Signed Email" is like ordinary emails we send everyday but with sender's digital signature attached to it. It can provide assurance on both the message content and sender's identity.
With the rollout of new HKUST Staff/Student Card, users can now apply for a Personal (Smartcard) e-Cert easily on the web and use it to send "Signed Email". You may like to send a signed email if you would like to assure your recipients that an email message really came from you. For example,
- Sending announcement to all staff or students.
- Sending important message to a large group of users via mailing lists, etc.
Preparation for verifying "Signed Email"
On receiving a "Signed Email" from other HKUST users, most common email clients like Netscape, Outlook, etc can verify the sender's identity for you automatically. But before this can be done, you will have to accept our HKUST Certification Authority (HKUST CA) Certificates once in your email client as a trusted party to perform digital signature verification. In fact, the HKUST CA Certificates have already been installed in all the PCs in our computer barns.
As "Signed Email" may get popular among HKUST community, it is recommended for you to install the HKUST CA Certificates to your email clients (on machines both in office and at home). Details on how to install the HKUST CA Certificates can be found at:
"Signed Email" Support in HKUST WebMail
ITSC is pleased to announce that HKUST WebMail supports sending "Signed Email" now. Although you can send "Signed Email" with email client like Microsoft Outlook, Netscape Messenger, you can now do it easily with HKUST WebMail (limited to Internet Explorer), without the trouble in configuring any of your email clients.
Details on how to send "Signed Email" with HKUST WebMail, please refer to the following page:
Other Useful References