What is the benefit of signing an encrypted email

[Carsten Aulbert]

Hi

On Tuesday 11 January 2011 11:04:31 jimbob palmer wrote:
> In Firefox I can sign or encrypt or encrypt+sign an e-mail.
> 

I suppose you mean thunderbird here, right?

> In what case would I want my encrypted emails also signed? Does it
> provide any additional benefit over a pure encrypted email?

Usually, you encrypt with the public key of the recipient, but sign with the 
help of your personal private key. Thus the recipient can we reasonably sure 
you sent this message, but no-one but him should be able to decipher it.

Does this help?

Cheers

Carsten