This is more of a PSA than anything, but (unsurprisingly), with the lack of interest in general email encryption, apparently no one’s going to step up and offer us free email certificates anymore (why, LetsEncrypt?!).
Previous writeup:
Also, I discovered that Firefox removed keygen support, so you can’t use it anymore for certificate generation. I missed that memo, and spent some time acquiring my domain-validated certificatewith Sectigo’s support team (being told repeatedly to use Internet Explorer, amusingly), before this detail was mentioned, and I was able to complete the process in Safari (this imports the certificate directly into Keychain, which then requires an export to send to other devices).
The formerly free COMODO (now part of Sectigo) certificates that I used to use now cost $20 per year (although the site now says $16.99, so they must have dropped it since). Still, not bad, though irritating. On the other hand, unlike COMODO’s free certificates, I did get actual support when things went awry, so you do seem to get what you pay for. And, I was happy with their assistance in acquiring my domain-validated certificate earlier this year, so I’ll stick with them for now so long as they offer decent support.
Other than the company merger and the pricing structure change, and the fact that no one else on the internet appears to use S/MIME encryption, the installation at least remains the same on the various devices I use. So, you know, encrypt away! Except you won’t, because again, I’m the only person on the internet who appears to use S/MIME encryption.
Simon