PersonalSign: Microsoft Outlook 98

Global Support Centre > PersonalSign > MS Outlook 98

Installing your certificate

  1. After installing your certificate in Internet Explorer, it will be available for use in Outlook 2003. To use your certificate in Outlook 2003, do the following:
    1. Choose "Tools" in the Outlook menu bar
    2. Choose "Options"
    3. Choose the "Security" tab
  2. To define your security settings and to specify which certificate you wish to use you need to define your default security settings. To do so you need to click the "Settings..." button. You will then see the following screen:

    3. change Security Settings

  3. You can create different security settings and give these separate names. You can define the following settings:
    • Secure Message Format (type of e-mail)
    • Digital Signature Settings
    • Encryption Settings
    • Security Setting Preferences (setting defaults)
  4. The "Digital Signature" settings allow you to choose the certificate you wish to use for signing your emails. If you click the "Choose..." button you will be presented by an overview of your personal certificates:

    5. Select your Certificate

  5. You can view each certificate by first selecting a certificate and then clicking on the ‘View Certificate…’ button. You will now have a screen which gives an overview of the certificate:

    6. View Certificates

  6. Both "Signing Certificate" and "Encryption Certificate" settings section also allow you to define which type of hashing algorithm you want to use for the creation of your signatures (SHA-1, MD5 or 3DES etc).

Digitally signing your e-mail messages with Outlook 98/2000

The first step to securing your e-mail messages is to sign them using your digital certificate.

Your digital signature enables the recipient of your message to verify that you actually sent the message and that it was not altered along the message route.

When you sign your message, it does not mean that nobody can intercept or read your message. Signing a message does not affect the contents of the message in any way or protect the message from being intercepted and read by someone other than the intended recipient. To ensure that only the recipient can read a message, you must also encrypt the message.

If the recipient of your signed message uses an S/MIME–enabled e-mail package, he can still read your message. In that case, your digital signature shows up as an attachment.
The signed icon shows that the received message was signed.

Signed Icon

The untrusted signature icon shows that the received message was signed by a certificate which was issued by a CA which you do not trust yet (because you have not installed its root certificate). This icon looks as follows :

Encryption Icon

You can sign your messages each time you want to sign or you can configure your security settings (as described previously) to sign using a specific certificate.

Customizing your Outlook 98/2000 to have the sign button and the encrypt button appear on your toolbar

  1. From your toolbar click on New message button

    2. Open a New Message

  2. Click on Customize From the Next dialog box

    3. Customize

  3. Select the Commands Tab
  4. In the Categories list select Standard

    5. Select Standard from the Categories List

  5. To have the Encrypt Message button appear on your toolbar, select it and move it to the Toolbar holding down the mouse as shown below :

    6. Encrypt Button

  6. By following the same procedure For the Digitally Sign Message you will end with the following screen

    7. Complete the procedure

  7. Click on Close to finish this procedure

Encrypting / scrambling your e-mail messages with Outlook

The second step to secure your e-mail messages is to encrypt them. E-mail messages are relatively easy for other people to intercept or read. You can avoid this by encrypting your messages so that only the recipient of the message can read it. Encrypt with Outlook 98 is as easy as signing.

Encrypting Email Messages

To encrypt your message you need to have a copy of the digital certificate of the intended recipient. When you receive a signed message, you can save the certificate of the sender in your Contacts List. You need to create an entry in the Contacts List if you want to send encrypted email to that person. You must also import his digital certificate into the Contacts List.

Encryption Icon

When you receive an e-mail, the encrypted icon indicates that the message has been encrypted. This icon appears in the lower right corner (blue padlock) of the address pane. The encryption process is done automatically.

You can encrypt your messages each time you want to encrypt or you can configure your security options so that your messages will be automatically enrypted every time the digital certificate resides in your address book.

When you receive an encrypted message the encrypt icon appears on the email window:

Encrypted Message

Save a Digital Certificate from a signed message

When you receive a signed encrypted message, you can save the digital certificate of that person in your Contacts List.

  1. You first need to click on the signed icon represented as:

    2. Signed Icon

  2. This will give you the following screen:

    3. Digital Signature Window

    This screen gives you more information about the certificate which was used for signing the email in use.

  3. If you want to view the certificate and all its detail, you need to click the ‘View Certificate…’ button. This will give you a screen which is similar to :

    4. View Certificates

  4. Clicking on the ‘Details’ tab will give you the following screen:
    5. Details Tab
  5. Clicking the ‘Copy to File…’ allows you to export the specific certificate to file. You can now import this certificate into your Contacts List (as described further).

Save a Digital Certificate from an Encrypted Message.

When you receive a signed encrypted message, you can save the digital certificate of that person in your Contacts List.

  1. You first need to click on the signed icon represented as:

    2. Click on the Signed Icon

  2. This will give you the following screen :

    3. Encrypted Message Box

    This screen indicates which hashing algorithm was used for the creation of the digital signature and also allows you to view the certificate in use.

    Clicking on the ‘Encryption Certificate…’ button will give you the ‘View Certificate’ window as presented previously. This window allows you to copy the certificate to file through the ‘Copy to File…’ button.

Importing a downloaded Digital Certificate.

To import a downloaded digital certificate in your Contacts List:

  1. Create in Outlook 98 a new address or open an existing one in your Contacts List
  2. Choose ‘digital ID’s’
  3. Choose ‘import’
  4. Select the downloaded file with the digital certificate and choose ‘open’

Import a Digital Certificate

To remove a Digital Certificate from your Contacts List:

  1. Open the address of the person from whom you want to remove the digital certificate.
  2. Choose ‘digital IDs’
  3. Select the certificate you want to remove
  4. Click on ‘remove’

When you remove someone’s digital certificate you can no longer send encrypted messages to that person.