Grewe explained PGP as bilateral, so that the two people involved would need to exchange keys. RSA is hierarchial, so that only one public key, given from a site to it's users, is necessary. Digital signatures stop forged e-mail. There are already some sites at the University which utilize RSA, or X.509, which establishes a digital signature, which acts as a driver's license to establish identity to be sure that the message came from whom it says it did, and that it has not been altered or corrupted. It is obvious when a site is using digital signature technology, since there is an unbroken key in the lower left corner and the outline of the page turns blue, said Grewe.
Administrators configure a server to accept only certificates signed only by a particular users.
This avoids the necessity to issue user name and passwords, and is as simple as adding new users. When we see the intact key on the screen, we know that whatever is typed cannot be intercepted and decoded. With student registration, one of the logical next steps is to pay for it on the web. Registration online is expected to utilize the RSA technology within two months, said Grewe. As e-mail works its way deeper into the heart of institutional sytems and peoples lives, encryption technologies like PGP and RSA will become mandatory.