Encrypted Email - Should 'Expired Certifcates' be backed-up?

Learn about Computer Security Digital Certificates and Digital Signing
1

FYI, my Comodo Digital Certificate has not expired. This is just to question a thought I had.

Imaginary scenario:

  • I have many Encrypted Emails.
  • My Digital Certificate expires (the 2 years is up).
  • I remove and throw-away the old Certificate, to install a new Certificate.

Could you confirm that I made a big mistake here?

Should I keep all of my Expired Certificates backed-up?

It seems like the obvious thing to do, but I just want to be sure that I’m not missing something.

Thanks.

2

You should definitely keep a backup of your expired certificate in this case.
It’s needed to decrypt all mails, which were encrypted with the public key of this certificate.

When a certificate expires, this means it gets invalid for signing and encrypting new mails. It doesn’t change anything about the mails, which you sent and received while it was valid.

3

Perfect answer. Thanks Mike.