How to get a public key

· How to get a OpenPGP/gnupg public key

http://www.gnupg.org or http://sourceforge.net/projects/winpt.
see also the corresponding manual how to bootstrap a trust web!

· How to get a X509 or S/MIME public key certificate

For free

use a tool to create one yourself:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xca (see step-by-step guide to create your own certificate)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/portecle (if you have JavaVM installed).
Commercial portecle: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/wayne_grant/keytool.html (if you have JavaVM installed).

This has the advantage, that you don't have to rely on anyone else for your certificate, except for the creator of the software.
This is perfectly fine if you just use it between PrivaSphere and your Mail Program, but if you also want to use it you send signed e-mail out of your Mail Program, your counterparts will have to explicitely trust your self-signed certificates . Thus you are back to the trust management done by the OpenPGP world above.

However, a certificate be obtained for free from the following sites:

http://www.cacert.org (not widely included in root certificate set)
http://www.trustcenter.de
http://www.thawte.com
http://www.verisign.com/

They might also sign a certificate signing request (CSR) created by xca or keytools, etc. as above!

With full operating system support

Typically, this is a paid service. Sites:

Why to get a public key

Increases convenience because you receive your private messages in your regular mail user agent (MUA) - e.g. Outlook.
reduces your exposure ...
...

If you wish to learn more about PrivaSphere Secure Messaging, contact a PrivaSphere representative.

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