Exchanging Certificates/Public Keys

When you encrypt a file with a password and then send it to your friend, Bob. In order for Bob to decrypt the file you will need to tell him the password. This is password exchange - one form of key exchange, and you have to find a secure method to tell Bob the password. Otherwise anyone who knows the password can decrypt the file.

Similarly you need to exchange public keys (as part of an X.509 certificate) with your correspondents. However you public key can be public knowledge, meaning anyone can have it. Your public key is like a lock that is used to lock data. Data locked with your public key can only be decrypted with your private key.

In this section you will learn how to exchange public keys (or certificates) with your correspondents.

Note: We use terms public key and certificate interchangably here. However there are differences between the two. To learn more about certificate and public key click here.

Giving Your Certificate To Others

iSafeguard allows you to give your certificate to other people easily and conveniently. You may use any of the following options to do so.

Using Certificate Manager Context Menu

1. Start iSafeguard™ Certificate Manager
2. Right click the mouse button on the certificate you want to send to others
3. Select Email selected certificate... from the popup menu
4. Follow your email program to send the exported certificate to others

Using Drag and Drop

1. Start iSafeguard™ Certificate Manager
2. Select the certificate you want to send to others using mouse button
3. Drag the selected certificate and then drop it to your email program
4. Follow your email program to send the exported certificate to others

Using Certificate Export Wizard

1. Start iSafeguard™ Certificate Manager
2. Select the certificate you want to send to others using mouse button
3. Click the Export... button
4. Follow the wizard to export the certificate to a file
5. Attach the certificate file to your email program to send to others

Receiving Certificates From Other People

Ask your friends/correspondents to do the same using the above instructions to export their certificates. When you receive their certificates they can be email messages or a file attachments depending on how they exported their certificates.

Receiving Certificate As Email Message

If the certificate you received is part of an email message do the following to import the certificate to your profile

1. Start iSafeguard™ Certificate Manager
2. Select the certificate text using your mouse within your email program, including the beginning "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----" and ending "-----END CERTIFICATE-----"
3. Drag and then drop the certificate to iSafeguard™ Certificate Manager window
4. Follow the wizard to import the certificate to your profile

Alternatively you can do the following

1. Login if you are not currently logged in
2. Click your mouse button inside the email window so that it gets the input focus
3. Press and hold Ctrl and Shift keys at the same time and then press key P (this is the default)
4. Follow the wizard to import the certificate to your profile

Receiving Certificate As Email Attachment

If the certificate your received is a file attachment you can do one of the following

1. From your email program open the attached certificate file
2. Login if you are not currently logged in
3. Follow the wizard to import the certificate to your profile

Alternatively you can

1. Login if you are not currently logged in
2. Save the attached file to your hard drive
3. Launch Windows Explorer and locate the file you've just saved
4. Right click mouse button on the file
5. Select iSafeguard and then Properties from the popup menu
6. Follow the wizard to import the certificate to your profile

Receiving Certificate As File

If the certificate your received is a file do the following

1. Login if you are not currently logged in
2. Launch Windows Explorer and locate the file that contains the certificate
3. Right click mouse button on the file
4. Select iSafeguard and then Properties from the popup menu
5. Follow the wizard to import the certificate to your profile