In the beginning, TCP/IP was created. It let all sorts of different computers talk to one another using a common protocol, and it was good. However, TCP/IP wasn't designed with security in mind, so any data you send has the potential to be viewed by someone other than the intended recipient, using a tool such as OTSessionWatcher. What to do? PGPfreeware employs both public (dual) key and secret (single) key cryptography to keep your information secure. The documentation provides an explanation of this technology, as well as references to other works for the curious. In a nutshell, a public key system relies on two keys, a public key and a private key, both of which are needed to complete an operation. These operations are encryption and signing. If a message is encrypted with someone's public key, only their private key can be used to decrypt it. Not even the sender can decrypt the message, since they don't have the required private key. Likewise, someone can sign message contents with their private key, and the recipient can use the corresponding public key to verify the signature. Since only the sender has the private key used for signing, this method can verify the identity of the sender. Compared to early version of PGP, which used a clunky command-line interface, this version is thoroughly Mac-like. The PGPkeys application is where you can create your own key pair, and manage the public keys of friends and associates. An excellent drag-and-drop interface allows you to simply drag your public key to a text field in another application, ready to send to others. You can also drag the text representation of someone else's public key into PGPkeys, and it will take care of all the nasty decoding and place the key in your keyring. PGPkeys can also send your public key to a PGP key server, as well as download public keys from this server. You have several options available when you want to perform encryption and signing. An add-on called PGPmenu provides a menu, available from any application, which will let you perform encryption, signing, decryption and signature verification operations on the selected file or data. Another add-on called PGPtools presents a graphical, drag-and-drop interface for performing these operations. Finally, a plug-in for Eudora offers email integration, by providing new icons for encryption and signing operations. An added bonus is the PGPdisk application, which will let you create an encrypted virtual disk, great for protecting sensitive files. Don't take a chance with your sensitive data. Check out PGPfreeware today. Useful Links 
PGPmenu Can Be Made Available from Selected Applications
PGPtools Provides a Graphics Interface
Eudora Plug-In Lets You Encrypt and Sign from Within Eudora |
