Emailcertificaten

Emailcertificaten are digital certificates used to secure electronic mail by providing authentication, integrity and confidentiality. They are typically issued within a public key infrastructure (PKI) and commonly rely on the S/MIME standard, which uses X.509 certificates to bind a person’s identity to a public key.

When an organization or individual obtains an emailcertificaat, the certificate contains the requester’s identity, the corresponding public key, the certificate’s issuer (a trusted Certification Authority), validity dates, and usage restrictions. The private key, needed for signing and decrypting, is kept securely by the owner, often in software key stores or on a hardware token.

Two main operations are supported: signing and encryption. Digital signing attaches the sender’s identity to a message and ensures integrity; recipients use the sender’s public key to verify the signature. Encryption uses the recipient’s public key to encrypt the message so that only the holder of the matching private key can decrypt it.

Certificate management includes issuing, renewing, and revoking certificates, and monitoring validity. Revocation can be published via Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) or Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP). Users must trust the issuing CA, and trust often builds through a chain of trust.

Alternatives include OpenPGP-based email encryption, which relies on a different trust model (web of trust) rather than centralized CAs. Emailcertificaten are widely used in corporate and government settings to meet security and compliance requirements, but adoption depends on client support, user management, and policy considerations.