What Is PGP? How Pretty Good Privacy Works, Explained



If you’re concerned about online and electronic privacy, encryption is the best thing to set your mind at ease. By using strong encryption protocols, you can make sure that your data is safe from prying eyes, and that only the people who you decide should see your information have access to it.
One of the most common methods for encryption is called PGP. This article will guide you through what PGP is, what it’s good for, and how to use it.
What Is PGP?
PGP stands for “Pretty Good Privacy.” PGP is most often used for sending encrypted messages between two people. It works by encrypting a message using a public key that’s tied to a specific user; when that user receives the message, they use a private key that’s known only to them to decrypt it.
Unsure what a public key or a private key is? Check out these basic encryption terms before reading on. It’ll help make encryption terminology much easier to understand.
This system ensures that it’s easy to send encrypted communications because the only thing needed to encrypt a message is a public key and the proper PGP program. But it’s also quite safe, as messages can only be decrypted with privately known keys that are password-protected.
In addition to encryption, PGP also allows for digital signatures. By signing your encrypted message with your private key, you provide a way for the recipient to see if the message content has been changed. If even a single letter in the message is changed before it’s decrypted, the signature will be invalidated, alerting the recipient to foul play.
What’s the Difference Between PGP, OpenPGP, and GnuPG?
Throughout this article, I’ll be discussing both PGP and Gnu Privacy Guard (GnuPG, or GPG).
GPG is an open-source implementation of PGP, and works on the same principles. Unless you’re going to be buying a PGP-enabled product from Symantec, the company that currently owns the PGP copyright and company, you’ll likely be using GPG.
Here’s a quick history of PGP, OpenPGP, and GPG.
PGP: Developed by Phil Zimmerman in 1991, PGP is one of the most enduring digital encryption methods and the most popular email encryption tool. Now owned by Symantec but licensed by thousands of companies.
OpenPGP: Up until 1992, cryptography featured on the US Munitions List as an Auxiliary Military Equipment. Which meant exporting Zimmerman’s PGP tool to international countries was a serious crime. In fact, Zimmerman was investigated for breaching the Arms Export Control Act, such was the power of the PGP encryption tool at the time.
Due to those restrictions, the OpenPGP Working Group was formed with help from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IEFT). The creation of an open-source PGP version eliminated the issues regarding the export of cryptography while ensuring anyone could make use of the encryption tool.
GnuPG: GnuPG (GPG) is an implementation of the...

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