# S/MIME encrypted e-mail in Mac OSX/Panther - how secure?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-mime-encrypted-e-mail-in-mac-osx-panther-how-secure/210058
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 28, 2003, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-mime-encrypted-e-mail-in-mac-osx-panther-how-secure/210058 "2003-10-28T17:25:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2003, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-mime-encrypted-e-mail-in-mac-osx-panther-how-secure/210058/1 "2003-10-28T17:25:51Z")
I’ve been thinking fro some time of starting to use encrypted e-mail–and, coincidentally, I’m probably going to buy Mac OS 10.3 (Panther), whose Mail program supposedly has S/MIME encryption.
Now, I read up a bit on S/MIME–it was put out by RSA, who basically invented public key cryptography, which is reassuring. But many old documents (1997-1999) I discovered on the Web indicate that, while a lot of mail programs use S/MIME, they only use a 40-bit key, which totally bites. (At least, they did at the time of those articles, so everything could be different now.)
Does Mac’s e-mail use 128-bit encryption? I would assume so, since nearly every US web browser now uses it for SSL, but I can’t find any specific documentation from Apple on the key length.
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2003, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-mime-encrypted-e-mail-in-mac-osx-panther-how-secure/210058/2 "2003-10-28T20:32:03Z")
A quick search of Apple’s website shows that the only place 40-bit encryption is used is for their Wi-Fi networks. Everything else appears to be 128-bit encryption.
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### Author:  [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-mime-encrypted-e-mail-in-mac-osx-panther-how-secure/210058/3 "2003-10-28T21:01:04Z")
Super. Thanks.