This section contains further information about how to request and obtain S/MIME certificates, and further help on how to install and configure S/MIME to work on users' email clients.

S/MIME certificates, also called "Personal certificates", enable users to digitally sign emails and optionally to encrypt email messages.

Sending a digitally signed email means the recipient is able to verify that the email has been sent from the sender's account. Digitally signing emails can therefore help reduce the chances of users falling foul to phishing attacks.

The recipient of a digitally signed email is also able to verify that the message content has not changed in transit, giving the user further confidence that the email is genuine.

Upon receiving a digitally signed email users have the ability to encrypt their reply and send it back to the original sender knowing that they will be the only person that can decrypt and read the message in the email.