S/MIME keys (was: What Are Some Good Projects For Novices?)

[Paul Rubin]

avenkat at myrealbox.com (Venkat) writes:
> > Thawte gives away personal certs. Yes, free. Signed by a real CA. You just 
> > have to provide them with some personal information. If you're dedicated,
> >  you  can also get in on their web of trust. That allows you to have more 
> > personal information present in the cert (like your real name).
> 
> Why the hell I need personal cert issued by Thwate/Verisign?

So when you send someone signed email, their mail client checks the
cert and believes it, rather than throwing a dialog saying it has gotten
an untrusted certificate.  Note that those free certs only validate your
email address (which of course is enough in many situations) and are
only good for a few months.

> I can say, all these certs(I call junkies) issued by these CAs are
> meta-certs.

I don't know what you mean by that.