I do not encrypt, nor do I digitally sign, emails. So far I have never encountered anyone who wanted to receive such emails, so I wouldn't have anyone to correspond with using that method.
I do encrypt Word documents occasionally, and attach them to emails. Years ago Word would let you encrypt a document using the recipients digital certificate, but that isn't allowed anymore. The only way to encrypt a Word document is with a password. It is possible for me to digitally sign a Word document, and I do that once in a while.
With Adobe Reader, you can digitally sign a document, but you can't encrypt it, neither with a password, nor with the recipient's digital certificate. I use a non-Adobe program when I want to encrypt a PDF.
With Adobe Acrobat, you can digitally sign, encrypt with the recipient's digital certificate, or encrypt with a password. But I don't have my own copy of Adobe Acrobat, and it's too inconvenient to drive to the volunteer organization where I have access to it. So I don't do anything with Adobe Acrobat except an occasional experiment.
I don't have any suggestions about other companies to get a digital certificate from. |
