Problem - Kevin Tafuro

people are going to trust it, so this can have disastrous effects if your key is compromised.
Anyone with access to your private key will also be able to decrypt email that
has been encrypted with your public key. Sure, your certificate can be revoked, but
as we discussed earlier, revoking a certificate does not have any effect if its revocation
status is not being checked. With this in mind, particularly for mobile users, we
highly recommend that you choose high security.
Finally, you should read and must accept VeriSign’s subscriber agreement and privacy
policy. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer and you checked the checkbox
for securing your certificate, a dialog will be presented to you to select the
security level that you want to apply to the certificate. Within an hour or so, you will
receive an email from VeriSign at the address you entered into the enrollment form
containing instructions on how to “pick up” your certificate from VeriSign. Included
in the email are a URLand a PIN, both of which you’ll need to get the certificate
from VeriSign. You should use the same machine and browser to retrieve the certificate
as you did to request it.
That’s all there is to it! Once you have retrieved your certificate from VeriSign, follow
the directions presented on VeriSign’s site to make use of the certificate in either
Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer. Again, if you are using other software to
access your email, follow the vendor’s directions to enable the certificate. Now you
are ready to start sending and receiving secure email!
Code-signing certificates
VeriSign offers code-signing certificates for use by software developers and software
vendors. The purpose of such certificates is to sign your code that users download
from the Internet. By signing your code, users can be assured that the code has not
been tampered with or corrupted since it was digitally signed with your certificate. In
the online world, where people are not only becoming increasingly aware of security
issues but also worry about viruses and worms, signing your code provides a certain
assurance to your users that they are getting the software they are expecting to get.
Obtaining a code-signing certificate is not nearly as quick and easy as obtaining a
personal certificate. Code-signing certificates are also considerably more expensive,
but then again, they are not really intended for everyday individual users. At the time
of writing, VeriSign offered six different types of code-signing certificates for various
types of programs. You must be sure to get the proper certificate for the code that
you wish to sign, because the different types of certificates may not work properly
with other types of code. For example, Microsoft Authenticode certificates only work
for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser. For Netscape browsers, you need to get a
Netscape Object Signing certificate. The available types of code-signing certificates
are listed as part of the process of obtaining a code-signing certificate, and you must
choose a type as the first step in obtaining a certificate.
516 | Chapter 10: Public Key Infrastructure
This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition
Copyright © 2007 O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.