Interested in PGP Desktop Security?
Download PGP 8.0.3 (7.74 Mb zipped)
My Public Key (4 kb)
What is PGP?
The short story - PGP is a powerful encryption program used most often in conjunction with e-mail (sending and receiving of private (encrypted) email) but can also be used to secure files on your hard drive (PGP Disk). PGP voor e-mail can be used in conjunction with Outlook, Eudora, Groupwise and chat program ICQ.
After installing PGP, you'll be prompted to reboot the pc. Once restarted, you can choose which user option you would like to use: Licensed or Freeware. If you choose to use the freeware option, PGP Disk will not be functional but you can use PGPmail. If you use the licensed version it will. A license is included but it is up to you if you use it or not.
That's great but now tell me, what is PGP....?
The whole story -
PGP - Pretty Good Privacy
“It’s personal. It’s private. And it’s no one’s business but yours.”
– Phil Zimmerman, creator of PGP, taken from “Why I wrote PGP.”
PGP 8.03 will install on Win98, ME, NT4, 2000 and XP. If you are
interested in PGP but not using windows, see
http://www.pgpi.org/products/pgp/versions/freeware/ for freeware versions which support other platforms (such as
Mac OS X, Unix, PalmOS and OS/2).
In this present day, all information that is stored or transmitted
electronically are possible prey to the powers that be. Whether this information
is fax, email, telephone, cellular phone, satellite or transferred via Internet, it is open
and available for anyone who knows how to manipulate the system (or those who
created the system). It is safe to
say that all of your emails, faxes, telephone conversations and/or file transfers can, will or have been
monitored for content. PGP is designed as an answer for this privacy problem.
How does PGP work? PGP allows the user to “encrypt” and “decrypt” either data
that is to be sent electronically or files that are stored locally on the
computers hard drive.
What is “encryption”? Encryption is the mathematical science of changing text so
that it can not be read and understood.
What is “decryption”? Decryption is the process of retrieving text from it’s
encrypted state so that it can be read and understood.
Data that can be read and understood without any special measures is called
“plaintext”. By disguising plaintext in such a way as to hide its substance is
called encryption. Encrypting plaintext results in unreadable gibberish called
“ciphertext”. This ciphertext is then incomprehensible to anyone who has access
to it. Only the intended recipient would be able to decrypt it and see the
original content.
This process of encrypting and decrypting is accomplished using PGP Keys. During
installation, you have the opportunity to create a PGP key. Anyone
wanting to secure and send you encrypted documents or e-mail would also have to
have PGP installed on his/her computer. He/She would then encrypt the data using
your "public key" not his or her own key. This is fundamental
for the correct use of PGP that you understand this. Once received, you can use
your "private key" to decrypt the data. No one should have access to your
private key beside yourself.
What else do I need to know? This public and private key combination is referred to as your "key pair". Your public key as the name suggest is what you publish openly for anyone who wishes to send you encrypted data. Once the data has been encrypted, the only person that can then decrypt the data is the holder of the "private key" and associated passphrase. A passphrase is a series of words, numbers and/or symbols which is used like an extended password.
You can also publish your public key on a key server so that it's easy to find by others. For example at: http://pgp.mit.edu/
All documentation is enclosed with the PGP.exe (above). i.e. "Readme.txt", "Intro to Crypto" and the "User's Guide". Very long but complete.
The VPN and Firewall components from version 7 have been scrapped in this version because it gave to much trouble.
You definitely want PGP if you are concerned about privacy and security!
ENJOY!
