David's World

February 28, 2005

I'm a notary in the spider web of trust, yeah yeah!

Yippehhh... From today, I'm a proud Thawte notary. To explain what that means, I need to give you a little background in crypotgraphy. In recent years, algorithms have been developed to make e-mail communication more secure. In particular, they ensure two things: 1) that e-mails cannot be read by anyone else but the intended recipient and 2) that the authorship of a particular e-mail can be verified, which implies that e-mails cannot be altered on the way. Don't forget that anyone can, in principle, send e-mail the appears to come from a different person, or any e-mail address they choose.

Thawte is a South-African company (owned by American Verisign) specializing in internet security, and their Web of Trust mainly supports both goals stated above. Here's how it works: suppose you'd like to digitally sign your e-mails, proving that you're their author or that you approve of the content. In order to do so, Thawte acts as a third party that guarantees that the e-mail comes from you. They don't need to see the particular e-mail - they just give you something like a digital passport, which is called a certificate. To get such a passport, you have to see a notary - like me - in person, and show him or her your real-life passport or other proofs of identity. You actually have to see more than just one notary. Then, you can get a digital passport (certificate) from Thawte, which allows you to sign your e-mails with your name. Because you have a certificate with your name on it, others can encrypt e-mail to you and be sure that only you can read it. (More explanations here.)

By the way, you can get started right away, even without seeing a notary in person. Just get a free personal certificate from them (it's all free, by the way!), and start signing your e-mail now. Without notarization, your e-mail will be signed only with your e-mail address, not with your name. That's because Thawte hasn't verified yet, that the address belongs to your name!

And if you're based in Edinburgh, pay me a visit and I'll notarize you.

Why did I become a notary? I thought it would be nice to meet people. But honestly - it's probably just some geeky gratification that I get from being an early adopter, campaigning for better e-mail security.

Hello,
I have Thawte Freemail personal certificate. I am from Lithuania.
I can send for your scan my passport, driver license and filled thawte web of trust form.
I can send and sign these forms my Thawte Freemail personal digital signature.
I wish to learn, whether you can assure my data and issue out to me points? If it is possible, I ask you to inform your data that I could give to you an opportunity to see my personal informations at Thawte.
For earlier I thank for your answer
Regards
Jevgenij Petrov