Patent ID: 8074066

Claim:
A method for sending a secure e-mail message to recipient using a sender system comprising a communication device, the communication device comprising a key store and being operative to execute a messaging application for composing and encoding an e-mail message, the method comprising: upon initiation of a message sending sequence of the messaging application to send a composed and addressed e-mail message securely to a recipient from the communication device, said message sending sequence being initiated by selection of a send option of the messaging application, and prior to sending said e-mail message, upon determining at the communication device that no valid security certificate associated with the recipient is stored in the key store, obtaining, by the communication device from a certificate service, a first security certificate associated with the recipient; determining at the communication device whether said first security certificate thus obtained is valid using a validity status of said first security certificate obtained from a certificate status provider; when said first security certificate thus obtained is determined not to be valid, the communication device repeating said obtaining to obtain a further security certificate associated with the recipient and repeating said determining to determine a validity status of said further security certificate until one of the further security certificates obtained by said repetition is determined to be valid; and storing said valid further security certificate in the key store; and encoding, by the communication device, the e-mail message using information contained in said valid further security certificate to provide a secure e-mail message; and sending the secure e-mail message from the communication device to the recipient.