An "active" ZixIt Signature is one that has been successfully created and posted to the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server using the ZixIt Signature Manager and then activated by the confirmation process. Both you and your recipient must have an active ZixIt Signature to encrypt, send, and receive a ZixMail message.

The status of your ZixIt Signature is stored at the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server and viewed on your local PC using the ZixIt Signature Manager. ZixMail allows encrypted messages to be sent only to active status recipients.

See confirmation.

A feature of ZixMail that enables you to store frequently used individual email addresses or email groups.

You can specify a nickname for each email address or contact. For example, when you add John Henderson (whose email address is JHenderson@domain.com) to your address book, you can specify his nickname as John. When you compose ZixMail messages, you can type John as the recipient.

Email addresses with "active" ZixIt signatures are shown in bold type in the address book. Email addresses without currently active ZixIt Signatures are shown in gray type (dimmed). You may press the Update Inactive Codes button to obtain the latest status for your address book entries.

ZixMail has a feature to import email addresses from the address books of most major email programs, so you can easily add all of your contacts to your ZixMail address book.

See email group, nickname.

See exporting Signatures.

A type of ZixMail message that automatically returns a confirmation to the sender when the recipient "signs" for the message and opens it. The confirmation arrives as a ZixMail message with the phrase ZCR: at the beginning of the public subject, followed by the original public subject field.

The returned "certified" message contains the original digitally signed timestamp showing the time that the original message was sent. A second digitally signed timestamp shows the time at which the message was opened.

See return receipt ZixMail message.

The process of confirming your email identity in order to set a newly created ZixIt Signature to active status. Also used to confirm changes to or deletions of your ZixIt Signature. You must have an active ZixIt Signature in order for others to send encrypted ZixMail messages to you.

Your ZixIt Signature, when first created, is initially set to "pending activation" status. At that time, the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server immediately sends an activation confirmation email message to your email address. You must respond to this confirmation email within 24 hours or your newly created ZixIt Signature will be removed from the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server.

The activation process ensures that no one else can create a ZixIt Signature for your email account. Only you can receive and respond to the confirmation email message sent to your email address. Your ZixIt Signature will be set to active when you respond to the confirmation email message.

The same email confirmation process is used to verify email address ownership for changes to or deletions of a ZixIt Signature.

Someone with whom you correspond by email, an entry in the ZixMail address book.

See nickname.

The process of removing a ZixIt Signature from the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server.

When you choose to delete a ZixIt Signature from the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server, you will no longer be able to digitally sign ZixMail messages with that particular ZixIt Signature. Also, others will no longer be able to send encrypted ZixMail messages to that particular email address.

The deactivation process begins when you choose to delete a ZixIt Signature. You deactivate a ZixIt Signature in the ZixIt Signature Manager application. The ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server will immediately send a deactivation confirmation email message to your email address. You must respond to this confirmation email within 24 hours or your ZixIt Signature will not be deactivated.

The deactivation process ensures that no one else can delete a ZixIt Signature for your email account. Only you can receive and respond to the confirmation email message sent to your email address. Your ZixIt Signature status is set to inactive when you respond to the confirmation email message.

It's a good idea to deactivate a ZixIt Signature before you change your email address. Your email account must still be active in order to confirm that you want to deactivate the ZixIt Signature.

The process of changing an encrypted ZixMail message into a readable email message.

See encryption.

See deactivation.

See ZixIt Signature.

A ZixMail message that has been saved in the Drafts folder but not yet sent. You can save a message as either an encrypted or an unencrypted draft. Encrypted drafts are secured with your ZixIt Signature, and you are required to enter your Signature Phrase in order to view or send that draft. Unencrypted drafts are not secured and can be viewed or sent by anyone with access to your PC.

Standard lines of information that can be added to the end of every ZixMail message that you send. Like a digital business card, your email ID can include your name, address, organization name, telephone and fax numbers, email addresses, and web site addresses.

ZixMail includes this email ID information at the end of the ZixMail message only when the Add Email ID checkbox is selected. The email ID information is included inside the encrypted message, so only the intended recipient can see it.

You can edit your email ID in either ZixMail or the ZixIt Signature Manager.

A collection of one or more contacts in your ZixMail address book. You can use email groups to send a single message to multiple recipients.

For example, if you frequently send the same email message to everyone in your family, you can create an email group called Family and add each contact that would normally receive family news. When you compose a ZixMail message to the family, you can simply type or select Family as the recipient, and all family members will receive the message.

If some email group members do not have active ZixIt Signatures, the message is not sent to them, but a copy of the message is stored in the Drafts folder for later delivery.

A ZixMail message that can be opened only by the intended recipient. The recipient must have the correct ZixIt Signature in order to read the ZixMail message.

The mathematical process of converting an email message into a ZixMail message, making it unintelligible to unauthorized users. By reversing the mathematical process using his or her ZixIt Signature (decryption), the recipient can read the message.

ZixIt encryption technology uses 1024-bit Public and Private Signature Codes (keys). ZixMail message encryption uses Triple-DES with three independent keys.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has issued worldwide encryption export approval for ZixIt-enabled software such as ZixMail. Countries excluded from the approval are Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Serbia, Sudan, Syria, and the Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan.

This means that your London, Tokyo, and New York offices can all use the same strong encryption offered by ZixMail.

See decryption.

Part of the process of copying or moving your ZixIt Signature to another PC.

The ZixIt Signature Manager enables you to select one or more ZixIt Signatures and then to create an encrypted export file that contains those Signatures. This export file may then be used as a backup of your ZixIt Signature and can be used to import your ZixIt Signature to another PC.

Export files end with the extension .zkx (ZixIt key Export).

See importing Signatures.

A file that is attached to a ZixMail message. Any number of files may be attached and the attachments may be of any type, such as .doc or .xls. All file attachments to a ZixMail message are both encrypted and compressed.

The ZixIt Signature Manager and the ZixMail applications use certain standard file name extensions:

A standard text file you create that contains a list of files (one per line) that you want to attach to a ZixMail message. This allows for repetitive file transfers to be handled very efficiently.

When you create a file list, you specify the complete path for each file you want to attach. Wildcards are allowed. For example, a file named "research_files.txt" could be created with the following contents:

Sending a ZixMail message and attachments that you received to another ZixMail recipient. Any forwarded ZixMail message will be re-encrypted for the next recipient.

See email group.

See SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server.

Part of the process of copying or moving your ZixIt Signature to another PC.

The ZixIt Signature Manager enables you to import one or more ZixIt Signatures from another PC. The import file must previously have been created using the export feature on the other PC.

Import files (also called export files) end with the extension .zkx (ZixIt key Export).

See exporting Signatures.

An "inactive" ZixIt Signature is one that previously has been "active" and then changed to a different status, such as revoked, deleted, deactivated, suspended, removed, or hidden. While inactive, a ZixIt Signature may not be used to digitally sign outgoing ZixMail messages. You cannot send ZixMail encrypted messages to a recipient with an inactive Signature status.

The status of your ZixIt Signature is stored at the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server, but the status may be updated (using the Update Status button) and viewed on your local PC using the ZixIt Signature Manager. ZixMail allows encrypted messages to be sent only to active status recipients. Both you and your recipient must have an active ZixIt Signature to encrypt, send, and receive a ZixMail message.

Computer software license that allows the end user to run the program.

A short name you can use to identify a contact in your ZixMail address book. You may type the nickname in the TO: field instead of specifying the email address of a contact in your address book.

For example, suppose you set up an address book entry for your mother that contains her actual email address and the nickname Mom. To send a ZixMail message to her, you simply type the nickname Mom in the TO: field when composing a ZixMail message.

See address book, contact, email group.

The subject line of a ZixMail message that is included in the encrypted portion of the message. A recipient can see the private subject only after entering his or her Signature Phrase to open the ZixMail message.

See Public subject.

A secret phrase used to encrypt a ZixIt Signature export file. When importing the file from another PC, you must enter the protection phrase exactly as you specified it when you created the export file.

See exporting Signatures, importing Signatures, Signature Recovery.

A secret code (also known as your private key), that resides only on your PC as part of your ZixIt Signature and can be accessed only by entering your Signature Phrase. The Private Signature Code is used to digitally sign outgoing ZixMail messages and to decrypt incoming ZixMail messages.

A publicly available code (also known as a public key) that resides on the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server. The Public Signature Code is used to encrypt outgoing ZixMail messages (for a specific email recipient) and to decrypt incoming digital signatures (from a specific email sender). For example, others will retrieve your Public Signature Code from the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server and use it to encrypt ZixMail messages being sent to you.

The subject of an email message or ZixMail message that is displayed in the recipient inbox under the heading Subject. In a ZixMail message, this is the only unencrypted portion of the message or attachments. The public subject appears in the subject line of your regular email program.

Use the private subject for sensitive subject information. The private subject is encrypted as part of the ZixMail message and can be viewed only by entering the Signature Phrase to open the message.

See private subject.

See Signature Recovery.

A question that you specify during setup that enables you to recover a copy of your ZixIt Signature in the event that you have forgotten the Signature Phrase or in the event that your hard disk is corrupted or your PC is stolen.

When you create or change a ZixIt Signature for a particular email address, you are offered the opportunity to have an encrypted copy of your ZixIt Signature sent to the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server for backup purposes. This copy is encrypted by a key that is derived from the recovery answer that you supply. "What is my mother's maiden name?" would be a typical recovery question. You can select a recovery question from a list of standard recovery questions or supply your own question.

See Signature Recovery exporting Signatures.

A type of ZixMail message that (at the receipent's option) returns a confirmation to the sender when the recipient "signs" for the message and opens it. The confirmation arrives as a ZixMail message with the phrase ZRR: at the beginning of the public subject followed by the original public subject field.

The "return receipt" message contains the original digitally signed time-stamp that shows the time that the original message was sent. It also contains a second digitally signed time-stamp that shows the time at which the message was opened.

See certified ZixMail message.

SecureDelivery.com is a secure-messaging portal for the Internet. Email messages sent through SecureDelivery.com will be delivered to recipient over a secure (SSL) connection or by alternative secure methodology, such as PGP/MIME or S/MIME. Attachments, if any, may be scanned for viruses and then downloaded individually over the SSL connection.

See ZixIt Signature.

Your Signature Phrase is a secret phrase that you make up and remember when you create your ZixIt Signature. You must type your Signature Phrase in order to digitally sign outgoing ZixMail messages or to open incoming ZixMail messages.

Your Signature Phrase must be at least one character long but no more than 128 characters. A Signature Phrase is case sensitive and may contain spaces and any characters. A typical Signature Phrase might be "when I was 5, my dog was named rover."

A process that enables you to recover a copy of your ZixIt Signature in the event that you have forgotten the Signature Phrase or in the event that your hard disk is corrupted or your PC is stolen.

If your ZixIt Signature is lost or corrupted, and you don't have a regular export file backup copy, you can request Signature Recovery from the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server. If you correctly answer your recovery question, the encrypted recovery file for your ZixIt Signature will be sent to you by regular email. You import the recovery file into the ZixIt Signature Manager, and once again, answer the recovery question. This unlocks the recovery file and you are then able to choose a new Signature Phrase and save your ZixIt Signature on your PC.

See exporting Signatures, recovery question, importing Signatures.

A server that routes email messages that you send to the recipient's email inbox. You may specify an SMTP server to use for each of your ZixIt Signature email addresses. The SMTP server name usually appears in the format such as, smtp.domain.com.

You can usually find your SMTP server name in the options for sending mail in your regular email program (such as Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, or Qualcomm Eudora).

If you use a proprietary or web-based email program (like AOL, HotMail, or Yahoo), your email messages are not normally routed through a known SMTP server. You may elect to use the ZixMail HTTP/SMTP server relay option to route these messages.

A message in readable form. Particularly undesirable for Internet communications.

See encryption.

The ZixIt Corporation application that enables Internet users worldwide to send and receive encrypted and digitally signed email communications without changing their existing email addresses or their existing email systems.

A certified time-stamp is attached to every ZixMail message. When ZixMail retrieves the email recipient's Public Signature Code (public key) from the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server, it also retrieves a certified time-stamp for the ZixMail message.

The time-stamp is "certified" because the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server combines a time-stamp, a hash (a short mathematical representation) of the ZixMail message being sent, the "status" of both the sender's and recipient's ZixIt Signature, a super root certificate (signed by four root keys), and then the combination is digitally signed by the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server.

This combination ensures that it is impossible to tamper with or change the time-stamp and that the time-stamp cannot be used on any other ZixMail message.

The email message itself is not sent to the ZixIt Worldwide Signature Server.

An encrypted and digitally signed email message that can only be opened and read by the intended recipient.

A digital signature from ZixIt Corporation.

The Zixit Signature is comprised of a set of encryption codes that enable you to digitally sign outgoing ZixMail messages and to decrypt incoming ZixMail messages. A ZixIt Signature can be created for an email address in about 60 seconds using the ZixIt Signature Manager. A ZixIt Signature is composed of three parts:

The ZixIt Corporation application that handles creating, changing or deleting ZixIt Signatures. It resides on your PC and includes functions for exporting, importing and recovering ZixIt Signatures.

A secure computing facility with the capacity to store and to distribute Public Signature Codes (also called public keys) for every email address in the world.

The Public Signature Codes are distributed for both encryption and digital signature verification purposes.