PGP is one of the most widely used encryption applications in the world. Short for Pretty Good Privacy, the program can be used to secure everything from email messages and data files to disk drives and instant messaging sessions. PGP has become a common feature on the web hosting market and though often overlooked, there are many reasons NOT to ignore this powerful security tool.
Your Email is Not Safe
All internet traffic is vulnerable to third-party snooping. The email system is one of the most insecure mediums and unlike a letter or phone call, these messages are not protected as private communications by law and can be viewed by third parties legal or illegally without the consent or knowledge of the sender. In fact, many security experts advocate that if you are not using encryption, never email anything you wouldn’t want to be intercepted and viewed by someone else. This could be financial details or personally identifiable information such as your name, address and phone number. When equipped with PGP, you can rest a bit easier about the contents of your email.
PGP Can Ensure Privacy
PGP encryption provides the privacy and security that traditional online communications lack. It takes plain, readable text and transforms it into a code of characters that is virtually unreadable. Thus, instead of traveling over the internet in a vulnerable state, your email or instant message is sent to its destination in an encrypted form. The recipient then uses PGP to decipher or decrypt the message into a form that allows it to be read. Whether you want to protect sensitive medical records, corporate files or just want to chat without the snoops listening in, PGP can provide the privacy you need to do so.
PGP in Action
PGP utilizes the public key encryption method which is based around two custom made keys: a public key and a private key. The public key is responsible for encrypting data while the private key decrypts it. Let’s say you use PGP to create a pair of keys. Once generated, you can share the public key with anyone you wish and send them encrypted messages. If you decide to give that public key to one of your associates, you can do a quick copy and paste and send it to them via email in plain form. When your associate receives the key, they copy it to their public key ring in PGP. After they write you an email back, the message is encrypted with the associated public key gathered from the key ring. Even if someone happens to intercept the email while in transit or on the server, it will be unreadable. When you finally receive the message, all you have to do is use your private key to decrypt and read it. Both encryption and decryption are automated processes that can be done with ease as PGP seamlessly integrates with most of the major mail clients.
Don’t Sleep on PGP
PGP is a reliable, easy to use encryption tool that should be used for any email communications you deem as confidential. When considering that some of its applications can be used to encrypt the entire contents of your hard drive, it becomes an invaluable tool that you may not be able to do without.
