When you receive an encrypted message, Messenger automatically decrypts
it. When the message is viewed, an icon is displayed indicating that the
message was encrypted, or both signed and encrypted.
Extreme care must be taken when the technology is used to encrypt email messages. Encrypted messages can only be decrypted by the required private key. Because of the very nature of the technology, it might be impossible to recover an encrypted message when the required private key is lost. If in any case the key pair does not match, the encrypted message could never be recovered.
As there are possibilities that an encrypted email can never be decrypted due to loss of the smartcard, personel turnover, etc., the encryption capability of the Personal (Smartcard) e-Cert has been disabled. In any case there is need to send/receive encrypted email, you will need to use recipent's Personal e-Cert. Please be reminded that recipents of encrypted email are advised to keep a backup copy of their Personal e-Cert by exporting it to a file.
To encrypt a message, you need to have a copy of the intended recipient's digital certificate. When you receive a signed message, Communicator automatically stores the sender's digital certificate.
If you don't have someone's digital certificate, the best and the simplest way is to ask the intended recipient to send you a signed message so that your email client can encrypt the message according to recipient's cipher (cryptographic algorithm) preferences. For more information about storing and maintaining correspondents' digital certificates, see Managing Correspondents' Digital Certificates.
When you receive an encrypted message, Messenger automatically decrypts
it. When the message is viewed, an icon is displayed indicating that the
message was encrypted, or both signed and encrypted.
You can encrypt individual messages or configure your security preferences to automatically encrypt all e-mail messages to recipients whose digital certificates are stored in your address book.
