Decrypt if you can

[Egg]

What a bunch of geeks!

Learning how to use encrypted communication is nice if you wish to discuss personal issues without anyone else snooping in on your conversation.

The NSA hasn't even cracked gpg/pgp encryption...

Get out! Really? Wow.

[Pigeon]

If the NSA did find a method do you think they would tell the world.

Also the pgp/gpg are not the encryption routines.

[Egg]

I'm gonna have to read up a bit when I have some time.

[MrPenny]

I happen to be teaching a Network Security Fundamentals class right now. A couple of the labs involved setting up an encrypted email system using pgp/gpg, then setting up encryption using S/MIME. I'll dig up the material I used and post it here. At least one part of it is a good step by step tutorial for setting things up.

[Egg]

Very cool. I'd appreciate that. I have extremely limited knowledge of HTML and that's pretty much it. I did ok in some coding class back in college but I couldn't even tell you what it was coding for anymore.

[MrPenny]

No coding involved. Install and configure.

The tough part is wrapping your brain around the concept and usage of 'private' keys and 'public' keys.

Oh what the hell....here it is in a nutshell.

Public/private key encryption involves the use of two individual components to encrypt and decrypt messages or files. Here's where it gets tricky.....

Using the appropriate software, I generate a "key pair"; the private key and public key. The two keys are related via the algorithms that generate them. One cannot function without the other. So two individuals want to use pgp encryption to exchange emails or files......I 'sign' my public key and give it to you. "Signing" the key is a means of saying "I certify that this is my true and proper public key".

Don't fret the technical parts here...just picture literal keys.

Now you decide to send me an encrypted email message. You choose to encrypt the message specifically to me. Since your software has my public key.....it uses that key to encrypt the message. Not yours, not anyone else's......my key.

I get the message and choose to decrypt it.....the system checks the public key attached to the message, confirms that it matches and shares the relationship with my private key, and decrypts it. That's where folks have trouble getting it straight.....the encryption is performed with a key generated by the person who is the intended recipient of the encrypted message.

Alright, I'll boot up the laptop and find the tutorial I used for the lab......it will help.

[Egg]

Thanks, man.

I know it wasn't coding, I was just illustrating how computer illiterate I am. Other than that I've installed more memory in an imac and titanium book. HA!!!

[skunk]

I posted a link on the previous page that walks you through the whole process of setting up email encryption egg, I'd recommend checking it out.

[IndicusMaximus]

I took apart and rebuilt a computer once. I was like ten or eleven, and I still have no idea what I was doing.

You see, the miracle part of it is that it worked when I rebuilt it, and it worked better because I had installed a bunch of new parts. I was REALLY into computers for a while, and then one day I just forgot it all mysteriously.

[MrPenny]

I posted a link on the previous page that walks you through the whole process of setting up email encryption egg, I'd recommend checking it out.

And it is an excellent link.

For further reference:

http://www.gpg4win.org/

http://support.mozillamessaging.com/en- ... figuration

http://enigmail.mozdev.org/documentatio ... 3.php.html

http://enigmail.mozdev.org/documentation/basic.php.html

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunde ... /enigmail/

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/