| From: | Keith Hill |
| Date: | 3 May 99 at 15:07:32 |
| Subject: | [amos-list] Re: PGP - a little off topic. |
From: "Keith Hill" <Braneloc@mirex.demon.co.uk>
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
> >The latest PGP Amiga is PGP5, latest on the Peecee is 6.02
> >(approximately) downloads from http://www.pgpi.com
> Without having to go to this site, could someone please tell me
> what PGP actually is / does? I noticed that OS3.5 testers needed
> to have it, so it must do something interesting ;)
It does indeed do something interesting. Public key encryption. An
easy to use way of encrypting files so only one person or group of
people can read them, a way of authenticating that a file or email is
genuine, and you can find out for sure who it belongs to, a way of
creating read only email that can't be saved via normal means, a way
of securing an area of your hard drive from all prying eyes, a way to
protect your online privacy.
The signing of keyfiles means, "I know who that bloke is", and anyone
who knows you, and trusts you, will believe who "that bloke" really
is. Lets say someone writes a new version of mui and releases it to
aminet, and it turns out to be a fake, or something nasty. With PGP,
you can sign the file, and people will know if it is genuine or not,
and if it comes from the real author. The latest peecee version even
does photographs.
Lets say someone else sent you an email with a whole bunch of personal
stuff on it. If they had your PGP public key, they could encrypt the
data so ONLY you could read it, not even they can read it unless they
use multiple keys to encrypt with.
Alternatively, if I wanted to send a demo to the amos list, or
something, (which would be a bad thing since it is a big binary) I
could encrypt it so only the registered beta testers could read it,
and be totally secure in the knowledge that no-one else could read it.
When it arrives to be decrypted, you need the secret key which you
create at the same time as the public key, and a passphrase, so even
if you have a multi-user system, you still have at least one level of
security to break, and those passowrds are encrypted, big time.
Don't need it ? Why do you use envelopes in the snail mail service
and not postcards ? Do you have something to hide ? You must be a
drug dealer, or some kind of criminal. I mean, who would use an
envelope on their post ? Only a real criminal. The governments must
be able to open your mail at any time, to see what you are up to. The
same goes for email, except everyone already uses postcards, and very
few use envelopes.
Even if you don't think you need it, someone may prefer to send stuff
in secure format to you at one time or another. It's worth having it,
even if you don't need it right now, you may need it later, and if you
have a keyfile that everyone knows about, it will be easier than if
you have one that no-one can vouch for.
It is FREEWARE and costs NOTHING to use. There are commercial
versions available, but don't ask me about those. You can get them in
the high street. The encryption is so strong, the US government
classes it as munitions technology, and is annoyed they can't break
it.
There are versions for unix, atari, amiga, msdos, windoze, win95/98,
and probably a few others. In fact, amiga is very public on the
site.. Paranoid lot us. The version on aminet is a very old one, the
keyfiles it generates are still usable, particularly the larger ones,
although it has trouble reading the newer ones. Version 5 Amiga is a
bit more complex to set up and install, but there are gui's available.
It also plugs into email software - at least some email software
anyway. Elm for example. (email of choice on unix/amiga)
I would suggest you use it to "sign" email, just so people know you
are who you say you are, if nothing else. Since you have my PGP
public key, you can check this email to see if it really does come
from me. Of course, if everyone signs my key and confirms who I say I
am, and you know one of the signers.. Make sense ?
_ _ _ _ _ _ |
|_> |_| |_| |\ | |_ | | | / | | "Stay Frosty."
|_> | \ | | | \| |_ |_ |_| \_ . |
|
--------------+---------------
http://www.mirex.demon.co.uk
Member: IAPA & Team *AMOS*
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGPfreeware 6.0.2i
iQA/AwUBNy2thYRdyywEJ6C8EQKWAwCg+3n/inD6bXaGcbjAIUMRsM5wFFAAn2Ny
Ikb4JGbivEc0TIn1x5DDCtzd
=C6eV
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Are you hogging all the fun?
http://www.ONElist.com
Friends tell friends about ONElist!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official AMOS WWW: http://members.xoom.com/AmosFactory/front.html