SETTINGS TO SIGN ALL OUTGOING MESSAGES OUTLOOK XP

1 Select Options… from the Tools menu.

2 Select the Security tab of the Options dialog.

3 Click on the Setting tab as shown in the above screen-shot.

4 You will be displayed the Security Settings page as follows

5 Enter some name for the Security Settings

Click on the Choose button for the Signing Certificate as shown in the above screen-shot for choosing your signing certificate.

6. You will be given a list of Signing Certificates installed in your IE browser to choose from. Select your signing certificate and click on “OK”.

Please Note : The email address in the certificate should match your Microsoft Outlook email account.

7. Your signing certificate will be selected. Then click on the Choose button for encryption certificate as shown in the above screen-shot for choosing your encryption certificate.

8. You will be given a list of Signing Certificates installed in your IE browser to choose from. Select your signing certificate and click on “OK”.

Please Note : The email address in the certificate should match your Microsoft Outlook email account.

9. Your signing certificate will be selected.

10. Please check the box to send these certificates with signed messages.

ENABLE SECURIT SETTINGS FOR MAIL ACCOUNT

Following steps will enable signing and encrypting all the outgoing messages from the sender’s account. Before that you need to install the required certificates in the IE browser. Make sure both the Signing and Encryption certificates are installed in the IE browser (Personal Store)

SETTINGS TO SIGN AND ENCRYPT ALL OUTGOING MESSAGES

1 Select Options… from the Tools menu.

2 Select the Security tab of the Options dialog.

3 Check Encrypt contents and attachments for all outgoing messages so that it is turned on.

4 Check Digitally sign all outgoing messages so that it is turned on.

Note: Microsoft Outlook XP includes the option to digitally sign and/or encrypt all the outgoing messages. The sender shall confirm that most of the sender’s correspondents use mail software that can accept digital certificates, while configuring this option. For the overwhelming majority of email users, it's best to choose secure email option one message at a time.

Note: While sending mails if the sender’s digital certificate does not exist, Outlook will warn that the message cannot be signed and prompt if the user wants to send an unsigned message instead. Similarly while encrypting the message, if the recipient’s digital certificate is not available the Outlook warns that the certificate is not available and if the user wants to send the message as an unencrypted message.

SENDING INDIVIDUAL SIGNED AND ENCRYPTED OUTGOING MESSAGE

Incase the sender does not want to activate the option to sign and encrypt all outgoing messages but wants to sign/encrypt certain outgoing messages, it is possible with Microsoft Outlook XP.

1 Create a new email by clicking on the New Mail button.

2 The New Message composition window will open.

3 Click on the Options button from the menu bar.

4. Click on the Security Settings Tab on the dialogue box.

1 Check the boxes for Signing/Encrypting the mail as required.

2 Click ok to close the dialogues.

3 Click on the send button to send the message.

4 If you don’t have the encryption certificate for the recipient, then the message will not be encrypted. The following dialogue will be shown.

5 Click on Send Unencrypted button. In this case, the mail will be digitally signed but not encrypted.

When the sender send a signed email, the sender’s private key is used to digitally sign the message. Depending on the private key security level the sender established when the sender first installed the sender’s personal digital certificate, when the sender click on the Send button, the sender may receive either an OK/Cancel prompt or a prompt for the sender’s private key password. If the sender selected a private key security level of "Low", the message will be sent without warnings or prompts.

The sender can send encrypted email to anyone who has a digital certificate. Simply ask the sender’s correspondent to send the sender a signed email or the certificate file as an attachment. Once the sender has received a signed email, the sender’s email program will store the sender correspondent’s digital certificate in the sender’s email address book. Once the sender have the other persons digital certificate in the sender’s email address book, the sender can encrypt all email to the correspondent.

RECEIVING SIGNED MESSAGE OR ENCRYPTED MESSAGE

While receiving signed messaged from others, the receiver can click on the from name at the top of the message using the right mouse button and can add the other’s digital certificate to the address book. When this is done the certificate and public key information is stored in the address book and you will be now able to send encrypted email to this person.

When the user receives a signed message, the recipient email program uses the public key attached with the message to verify the signature.

When the sender receives email, which is signed, and/or encrypted, the message will have the appropriate icon attached to it. The following is a typical signed mail.

The red icon indicates that the message is a signed message.

The blue padlock indicates that it is an encrypted mail. The receiver can click on these icons to examine the details of the certificate used to sign and/or encrypt this message. The following is the screenshot for the signed mail.

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