“Ten years after Phil Zimmermann released PGP v.1.0
(Pretty Good Privacy), PGP has evolved from an underground tool for
paranoiacs to the gold standard, even an internet standard, for
e-mail encryption. GnuPG, the GNU Privacy Guard, is a 100% free
alternative to commercial PGP and is included in most Linux
distributions. And yet, not nearly as many people who need it (and
already have it) use it.Are you among the many GnuPG procrastinators of the world?
Hopefully you won’t be after this and next months’ columns. After
you’ve generated your personal keys, sent your first encrypted
e-mail and finally verified the security signature of that cool
software package you downloaded, you’ll be glad you took the
trouble to master the multifunctional marvel that is GnuPG.This month we’ll begin with PGP/GnuPG background, concepts and
quick-start. Next month we’ll dig deeper into file and e-mail
encryption, key management and graphical user interfaces.”
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
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