I’ve generated a new GPG key.
ID: 4DB4D915
Fingerprint: CF63 FAFF 1332 2203 C12A 2B36 EC77 CD3C 4DB4 D915
Grab it from me or a key server.
And remember: please encrypt all email!
I’ve generated a new GPG key.
ID: 4DB4D915
Fingerprint: CF63 FAFF 1332 2203 C12A 2B36 EC77 CD3C 4DB4 D915
Grab it from me or a key server.
And remember: please encrypt all email!
..what?
GPG is an open source port of PGP. Both implement the OpenPGP encryption standard.
They support public key crypto. What I posted here is the id and fingerprint of my public key. If I want to send something to someone else using GPG/PGP, I’ll encrypt it with their public key. The public key is public, so anybody can do this. But in order to decrypt it, one needs the public key’s mate: the private key. Only the person I’m sending the message to has this, so only they can decrypt the message I send.
If I want to encrypt files for myself, I’ll do so with my public key, and only I’ll be able to decrypt it with my private key.
It also supports signing. If you’ve ever gotten an email from me, you’ve probably noticed an attachment called signature.asc (at least I think that’s the file name that enigmail uses). This is basically a hash, or unique fingerprint, of the contents of the email message created with my private key. If the sig validates it tells you two things: that the email was indeed sent by me (or someone with my private key) and that the email has not been altered in any way since I sent it.
Check out the guide for help getting started.