Where can I find more information?
Additional resources that give more background on S/MIME, X.509 certificates, and cryptography in general.
- Understanding digital certificates and how they work — Very brief explanation of digital certificates/IDs.
- A more thorough Introduction to Public Key Cryptography — yes it's by Netscape, but it's quite clearly written.
- About Digital Certificates — Question-Answer format explaining what digital IDs/certificates are and how they work, with emphasis on GlabalSign as the CA.
- Digital IDSM Introduction — A good, fairly thorough site from VeriSign explaining digital IDs and how the encryption/decryption process works.
- X.509 Certificates and Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) — A slightly more detailed site from Sun on X.509 certificates; easy to understand.
- Paj's Introduction to public key encryption — Pretty good, terse diagram of symmetric and public key encryption at work.
- Working around SSL Root Certificate Errors with Entourage 2004 and Microsoft Exchange