Digital Certificates: How to backup or move your Digital IDs to a new machine using Firefox
- Click on Edit/Preferences (or Tools/Options in Windows).
- Select the Advanced tab.
- Select the View Certificates button.
- Select one of your certificates by clicking on it. Click on the Backup button. That will pop up a window prompting you to name the certificate and save it. Make sure you choose a name that makes sense to you. We strongly suggest that you choose a location for your backups that are routinely backed up by UT Dallas Information Resources department. Usually, your home directory is a good location for this.
- You may be prompted for the Master Password, if you're using one.
- After you type in the Master Password, you will be prompted to create a password for your certificate. We recommend using your Challenge Phrase, because that will help you remember it next year, when you need it to renew your certificates.
- Click on OK. You should see this screen.
- Repeat this same process for the second key.
Once you have successfully backed up your certificates, you will need to import them into your email client so you can use them while sending email. The following example is for Mulberry, but other clients work in a similar fashion. If you have questions, please contact the UT Dallas Help Desk at ext 2911 for assistance.
- Click on File/Preferences.
- Select the Security tab
- Click on Manage Certificates
- Click on Import and select one of your certificates that you just backed up. (In Mulberry, you should always choose the signing certificate first. This is due to a quirk in Mulberry that makes the first key imported the Default Key, which is used for signing.)
- Enter the passphrase that you entered when you backed up the certificate, then click on OK.
- Your certificate store should now look like this.
- Click on OK. Then select the Identities tab from the Preferences screen.
- Select an Identity to edit. Click on Change, and select the Security tab.
- You have two certificates. One is used for encryption. The other is used for signing. In Mulberry, the first key in the store is the Default Key. (In this example, that is the signing key. Mulberry requires this due to a quirk in the way it selects keys.) Other email clients, such as Thunderbird, allow you to choose which key to use for signing and which to use for encryption. Make sure you select them properly.
- Congratulations! Now you're ready to sign and encrypt email.
