As I might have mentioned, PGP uses a blend of symmetric- and public-key cryptography – by the way, this is called a hybrid cryptosystem. Please note that this is just a digest, geeky pun intended. Now, to understand the importance of the web of trust, we will need to take a closer look at the PGP encryption process. Eerily similar to the X.509 system, which introduced the certificate authority principle, the web of trust ensured that the message sent by a person actually belongs to that person (anti-impersonation countermeasure). As a result, the web of trust was created. This public-private key generation system would have undoubtedly created an abundance of keys that require some sort of curation system. As you know, in private-public key cryptography, you encrypt with your public key and decrypt with your private key. The very core of PGP encryption is associating pair credentials (i.e., username and email address) with a public key. Although Pretty Good Privacy has turned 30 this year, it has yet to be ‘cracked’ by computational or cryptanalytical means, which makes it -probably- one of the most secure email communications protocols. Zimmerman’s longstanding passion for cryptography made PGP possible and, to some extent, very feasible. Of course, this aspect would have been unacceptable, even by 90s standards. Long before PGP became the standard for secure email communications, the plaintext content of your emails could have been ‘scanned’ by anyone who possessed the right resources (e.g., your Internet Service Provider, black-hat hackers, governmental entities, etc.). I’ll discuss each component in the upcoming section dedicated to the more technical aspects of the PGP encryption. Zimmerman, who was also involved in the development of VoIP encryption protocols (e.g., Zfone and ZRTP), managed to piece together an encryption system that was based on a gold combo: public-key cryptography (i.e., private-public key) hashing, symmetric-key encryption, and data compression. It was called PGP, which is short for Pretty Good Privacy. Enjoy and stay safe! What is PGP Encryption?īack in 1991, computer wizard Phil Zimmerman comes up with a new encryption program for email communications. We’ll talk about the history of PGP, legal conundrums, incidents, and more. And with privacy being synonymous with encryption, I’ll be taking you through PGP encryption. Today’s article is dedicated to one of the most crucial aspects of OTA (over-the-air) communication: privacy. From ARPANET to the more modern, AI-curated Internet, the need for efficient communication has remained unwavering.Įverything boils down to communication, whether you’re the underdog looking to impress the top brass or a simple customer asking the teller to gift-wrap your products. In extenso, these are also the vertebrae of the grand, worldwide web, a scaffolding around which we raise web pages and other types of resources.
#Best pgp encryption for mac guide software
Security and privacy are the pillars of any software development endeavor. This land of endless possibilities (and probabilities) which is the public domain has taken the stand more than – sometimes lobbying out for creative commons and other times denouncing itself for being a pool of resources in which any ill-intended user can cast a fishing rod. They are not and they can be defeated.Peter Thiel of Palantir Technologies and PayPal once said that every time an email is written, it gets broadcasted into the public domain, which is not as secure as people (end-users) tend, or led to – believe. Do not believe that the NSA or DOJ is all powerful. It is mandatory that you read and understand the instructions for proper use of the plugin if you wish to actually be secure.įoreign intelligence organizations use the Internet for covert and clandestine communication without detection and you can as well. Mailvelope is currently in Beta status and does not support encrypted attachments. It also features key generation and management functions. Mailvelope solves this by opening an external editor where you compose your message before encrypting and then inserting the encrypted message into the webmail compose window. It currently comes preconfigured for webmail providers Gmail, GMX, Outlook, Posteo, WEB.DE, Yahoo, and can be adjusted to work with other webmail providers.Īny plugin based webmail solution where you type your message and then click a button to encrypt before sending is useless from a security standpoint because the provider can see your message as you type it before it is encrypted, thus is completely insecure. Mailvelope is completely open source and based on OpenPGP.js, an OpenPGP library for JavaScript. Mailvelope is a plugin supporting webmail encryption in Firefox and Chrome. Using GPG/PGP with Gmail and other webmail providers
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