(DC) Web-Based Email -vs- Email Clients
Accessing Web-Based Email
Web-based email clients are very popular for those individuals who like to travel light or access their email or calendars from locations where their mobile device, laptop, or primary computer is not available. The web-based email clients (Outlook / Office 365) for the University of Texas is secure way to access your email.
Caveats
Most Web-based email programs (including Outlook Webmail, Gmail, and UTMail) do not provide support for using digital certificates because they do not include support for S/MIME, the standard for the certificates.
Can not digitally sign messages.
Can not encrypt or decrypt messages.
If you receive an email message from someone who included their digital signature or signed their email, you may see the following informational message, or something similar:
This message has a digital signature, but it was not validated. Attachments will not be included on a reply or forward.
Email that has been encrypted can not be read using a web-based email client. You must use an approved device with a software based email client (Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, etc..) that has your digital certificate installed to be able to view the encrypted message.