Abstract: "Should I buy PGP or S/MIME?" <This little thing is a recap on what I think these posts are bout.> Well, I just want to remind something, something that someone else has mentioned not so long ago, and it's this: PGP is Open Source, while S/MIME is not. This means PGP and it's algorithms have been scrutinized over, while S/MIME has not... Although this might not be enough to decide weather to use PGP or S/MIME, I would give a '+' to PGP for making an effort to be accountable, and a '-' for S/MIME for being secretive. Sincerely, Jan Dobrucki <the article is cut...> DSA is a signature-only algorithm. Consequently, you aren't doing a "decryption" with it when you evaluate a signature. I recommend you look in a crypto source book, like Schneier's "Applied Cryptography" or Menezes, van Oorschot, and Vanstone's "Handbook of Applied Cryptography" for details of how DSS is done. There is also source code available from a wide variety of places. <the article is cut...>