PGP PUBLIC KEY ???

[Phunkie Munky]

Hey, I have heard about a PGP PUBLIC KEY, for email encription.

Quite afew people are getting them in order to create 'secure' email connections. What I want to know is what is a PGP PUBLIC KEY, ive seen one and it is just letters, yeah I know about the encription part. I encript nearly everything, lol

But can someone make it abit more clear, I want to know how to get one. How to actually use one and also the benifits of having one besides having a secure email connection.

And would a secure connection really keep out virus's like we are seeing now, going around the web.

Any help would be much apreciated, Thanks.
Phunkie.

[The village idiot]

check here: http://www.pgpi.org/

That should get you started. You'll need the software, and then read through the instructions. PGP is widely used because it is free. It is also Pretty Good Protection for your encryption. PGP uses 2 keys. One (public) That you use to encrypt the message, and one private to decrypt messages. That way no one has you private key but you.

[Phunkie Munky]

Thanks for the help, much apreciated.

[vitualis]

Install PGP and then read the included documentation, specifically, Zimmerman's excellent "Intro to Crypto". It explains the basic concepts well.

Public key encryption gives you two benefits for email. One is that you can encrypt something with a public key so that only the recipient with his or her private key can read it (that includes you!) Once you've encrypted something with someone else's public key, unless you've kept a copy of the plaintext, you won't be able to decrypt it either.

The second is verification. If you use your private key to sign an e-mail you've written, the recipient by using your public key can confirm that you and only you could have written the plaintext.

Regards.