SIGNED AND SEALED

Although the digital signature features in OpenOffice.org and Thunderbird are easy to use, a digital signature requires a digital certificate, and the task of obtaining one is not always so easy. Digital certificates are normally issued by what are known as certificate authorities, and many of these authorities charge serious money. Moreover, the whole process of getting a digital certificate and installing it on your computer can be quite convoluted. But despair not: this Workspace installment shows you how to get free and self-signed certificates and then use them to sign your personal emails and Open-Office.org documents. Before you obtain and install a certificate, make sure you have the latest version of the Mozilla Firefox browser on your machine. Firefox acts as a tool for storing and managing certificates.