Free Digital Certificate

There are VERY few companies that I give real information to online. Thawte is one of the few. They have never misused my data. There are also severe legal penalties for lying when it involves digital certificates, be honest or don't even do this. You must be over 13 to sign up; really.

I'm going to walk you through it step by step.

Click this link to get started: https://www.thawte.com/cgi/enroll/personal/step1.exe  

The first page has legal stuff like "Play Nice, Don't Lie, and We won't sell your info to the government.", just scroll down and click on "Next>".  

   

The next page wants your surname (last name), forenames(s) (first name and middle name), date of birth, and nationality.  

   

If you are in the United States, the next page wants your "USA National Identification" number and email address, PLEASE ONLY use a drivers license, passport, Military, or other nationally recognized photo ID number. I recommend that you DO NOT use your social security number. If you do the later step of having your identity verified, you will be leaving a photocopy of your identification with any Thawte Notary that confirms your identity. It just isn't smart in this day and age to leave copies of your social security number floating around; even within a trusted group. Please ONLY use an ID that you still have. If the only nationally recognized ID card you can physically find is your social security card, then use it.

The email address that you use will become your Login ID with Thawte. I recommend using whatever email address you consider to be your primary and permanent address; even if that is a Yahoo account. You will have the opportunity to add additional email addresses later.

The next page wants your language settings. Normally you can leave it alone and just click "Next>"

Now it is time to choose a password. This is very, very serious. Please use something odd that you can easily remember and that is not known to anyone else. Use a strange but memorable phrase from your childhood. Treat this like your online banking password. Recent laws make digital signatures just as real as a standard signature. A weak password will open the door for identity theft and completely ruin that whole security thing we are trying to obtain.

The next page wants a contact phone number and secret questions. This is the fun part. Take your time. Pull all those favorite inside-jokes out of the closet and make some good ones. You have to make five secret "I'm really me" questions with appropriate answers. If you type your questions and answers in all lowercase, without punctuation, your life will be easier in case you ever need to answer them.

I didn't want to create a fake person (they get mad about that) so that is as far as I stepped for the signup tutorial. The next page just sends you an email at the email address you gave it with two big long numbers in it. You must enter them on a verification web page to prove you got the email. I recommend highlighting the numbers one at a time and hitting CTRL-C to copy, then moving to the box on the web page and hitting CTRL-V to paste. (I hate typing long gibberish numbers.)  

Thawte will try to fool you at this point and make you think you can have a certificate right away, but until you do the Identity Verification step, your certificate only says "Verified Thawte Member" instead of your name, which is annoying. Wait to play and do the verification step next.