Email: What Is PGP And How Can I Use It For Email?

PGP is commonly referred to as “Pretty Good Protection”, and is the most common form of encryption used for secure messaging.  It emplys a standard 2 key system, and was first designed by Phil Zimmerman in the mid-1990’s.  Since then, there has been off an on turmoil regarding the public’s right to use PGP, and whether it violates international laws when used across national boundaries.  Most of these issues have been resolved now, and PGP is widely used to exchange sensitive data between privates persons as well as between giant corporations.

In PGP, the user is provided with two encryption keys, one is the private key, and is retained by the the user.  The other key is called a public key, and is sent to the person the communication is addressed to, where it is used to unencrypt the data.  Encryption is simply  code used between each end of the data stream, preventing anyone from intercepting private mail and being able to understand the information.

PGP is available for most computer platforms, and can be installed to work with a number of popular email applications, such as Outlook, Eudora, and even ICQ.  PGP works across platforms, as well.  A message that is created on a MAC OS can be deciphered on a PC or Linux system, and vice versa.

For more information about what PGP is, and how it works, visit:
http://www.cryptography.org/getpgp.htm

For sites where PGP programs may be obtained, please see:
Free (GNU/GPL) versions: http://www.gnupg.org/
Commercial versions: http://www.pgp.com/

There are archives and information  at The International PGP Home Page:
http://www.pgpi.org/

Article written by MyComputerAid.com

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