I won’t go into too much detail about how encryption works, but a basic understanding is necessary for even the simplest implementation. To encrypt and decrypt a file, two “keys” are required. One is the private key, which is just that, private. I like to think of the private key as an actual key—you can make copies if you want, but it’s not wise to do so. The more copies of your private keys you make, the more likely someone nefarious will get one and break into your apartment—er, I mean files.