Differences Among Available S/MIME Certificates

Introduction

S/MIME stands for Secure / Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions and is a standard that allows you to encrypt and sign your email messages using public-key cryptography. S/MIME ensures that your email messages are confidential, authentic, and unaltered, regardless of who they are sent to or where they are sent.

With our range of S/MIME certificates from GlobalSign, you can protect your email as you wish or as required. There are three validation classes for S/MIME certificates in total. The following article explains the different options in more detail.

GlobalSign Personal Sign 1

The Personal Sign 1 is a popular email certificate for personal and business email addresses. With the Personal Sign 1 certificate from GlobalSign, you can verify and encrypt your email, ensuring secure and trustworthy email communication. Only the existence of the requested email address is verified, so this certificate can be issued particularly quickly.

GlobalSign Personal Sign 2

PersonalSign 2 Pro

In addition to the company information and email address, the certificate also displays the first and last name of the certificate holder. To validate the certificate, a VideoIdent process is used, which you complete with a GlobalSign representative. Please note that the VideoIdent call can currently only be conducted in English.

PersonalSign 2 Department

The GlobalSign Personal Sign 2 Department is an email certificate for business email addresses and group email addresses. The following information is then entered into the S/MIME certificate: company name, company address, and the general email inbox.

To issue a PersonalSign 2 Department certificate, in addition to a valid email address and the applicant’s information, the certification authority also verifies the company where the applicant is employed. To do this, the certification authority verifies the information provided during the order by requesting documents (individual: ID card or driver’s license; company: extract from the commercial register).

After the above-mentioned points have been verified, the certificate is issued with the applicant’s first and last names as well as the company name, thereby providing the highest level of authenticity for signing and encryption.