| FAQ Article: What is PGP / GnuPG ? |
PGP stands for "Pretty Good Privacy". Abbreviated as PGP, this is a technique developed by Philip Zimmerman for encrypting messages. PGP is one of the most common ways to protect messages on the Internet because it is effective and easy to use.
PGP is based on the public-key method, which uses two keys -- one is a public key that you disseminate to anyone from whom you want to receive a message. The other is a private key that you use to decrypt messages that you receive.
PGP is such an effective encryption tool that the U.S. government actually brought a lawsuit against Zimmerman for putting it in the public domain and hence making it available to enemies of the U.S. After a public outcry, the U.S. lawsuit was dropped, but it is still illegal to use PGP in many other countries.
PGP is still available in some form as freeware from PGP.com - but the freeware version no longer has as many features as the versions you pay for - which is sad. So what's the best solution? GnuPG !
GnuPG (or GPG) stands for "GNU Privacy Guard". GnuPG is a complete and free replacement for PGP. Because it does not use the patented IDEA algorithm, it can be used without any restrictions. It can be used to encrypt data and to create digital signatures. It includes an advanced key management facility and is compliant with the proposed OpenPGP Internet standard as described in RFC 2440. As such, it is aimed to be compatible with PGP.
You can download GnuPG from: gnupg.org.
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Posted on: 19-08-1999
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