Implementing S/MIME for Windows Mobile White Paper

E-mail security is critically important to companies of all sizes. Because modern mobile devices offer access to a broad range of sensitive data, including corporate e-mail, calendar data, and contact information, there is increasing interest in solutions that protect these data items both in transit (as they move from place to place) and at rest (while they’re stored on a server, computer, or mobile device).

Encryption is a valuable tool for protecting sensitive data because it can be used to protect data both in transit and at rest. In order for any encryption system to be truly useful, it must be widely supported and based on standards so that users of different messaging systems can properly exchange messages. The Internet standard for message encryption is the Secure Multipurpose Internet Multimedia Extensions, or S/MIME. The S/MIME standard is managed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and, as an open Internet standard, has been implemented by all the major operating system, messaging, and collaboration vendors. S/MIME provides open, interoperable protocols that allow compliant software to exchange messages that are protected with digital signatures and encryption. S/MIME requires that each sender and recipient have an X.509-format digital certificate, so public-key infrastructure (PKI) design and deployment is a major part of S/MIME deployment.

This paper describes the S/MIME protocol, explains your options for obtaining, installing, and using certificates; describes different methods of certificate storage and their attributes; and describes how you can use S/MIME to protect messages sent from, and received by, Windows Mobile devices. The information and instructions in this paper are applicable to Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile 6 devices and to users whose mailboxes are hosted on Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007.

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