A security professional should ensure that clients support which secondary algorithm for digital signatures when a Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (S/MIME) is used?

The correct answer is D. Rivest-Shamir-Adieman (RSA). S/MIME is a standard for secure email that uses asymmetric encryption and digital signatures. S/MIME supports several algorithms for digital signatures, but the most common ones are RSA and DSA. RSA is a more versatile algorithm that can be used for both encryption and digital si

Submitted by tunde_lagos· Mar 5, 2026Security Architecture and Engineering

Question

Options

ATriple Data Encryption Standard (3DES)
BAdvanced Encryption Standard (AES)
CDigital Signature Algorithm (DSA)
DRivest-Shamir-Adieman (RSA)

How the community answered

(65 responses)

A
2% (1)
B
2% (1)
C
6% (4)
D
91% (59)

Explanation

S/MIME is a standard for secure email that uses asymmetric encryption and digital signatures. S/MIME supports several algorithms for digital signatures, but the most common ones are RSA and DSA. RSA is a more versatile algorithm that can be used for both encryption and digital signatures, while DSA is designed only for digital signatures. RSA is also more widely supported by email clients and servers than DSA. Therefore, a security professional should ensure that clients support RSA as a secondary algorithm for digital signatures when S/MIME is used, in case the primary algorithm is not available or compatible.

Topics

#S/MIME#digital signatures#RSA#cryptography protocols

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