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

[Venkat]

Richard Jones <richard at bizarsoftware.com.au> wrote in message news:<mailman.998435373.14448.python-list at python.org>...
> On Monday 20 August 2001 23:33, phil hunt wrote:
> > On Sun, 19 Aug 2001 19:01:45 +0200, Michael Ströder <michael at stroeder
> .com> 
> wrote:
> > >phil hunt wrote:
> > >> I haven't looked into S/MIME. Is there a web page with a good summar
>  y of
> > >> it?
> > >
> > >http://www.rsasecurity.com/standards/smime/
> > >http://www.imc.org/ietf-smime/index.html
> >
> > From reading links from this stuff, I get the impression that to get
> > an S/MIME public/private keypair, you have to buy one from a
> > Certification Authority (who also certify your identity, presumably).
> > Is this correct? Or can I just create my own keys like I can with GnuPG
> > or PGP?
> 
> 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?

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

Meta-cert= Trusting the trust

regards, DeathMaster


> 
> 
>    Richard