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Gnu Privacy Guard home of gpg. Open PGP Verisign Thawte free S/MIME certificates |
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These days using the Internet and E-mail is common, easy, and even a necessity for some of us. But have you ever wondered if that E-mail you just read was really from the person you thought is was from? It might have been from someone else who was using that persons account, or who set up their E-mail program to show a different name. It might even have been sent by a virus. Of course the same is true about messages others think were sent by you. Did you know that the message you just sent could be read by anyone with the right access to a computer along the message's path? Thats right, that E-mail you just sent and thought no one but the recipient would see might have been read by some stranger or perhaps even someone you or the recipient knows. Their are four main locations where messages get intercepted: your computer (the sent/out box), your SMTP server where the message gets held until sent to the destination, the recipients mail server where the message is stored until deleted, and finally the recipients computer. There is a fifth location, any computer the message has to pass through on its from you to the recipient could intercept copy and even alter the message. Remember E-mail is sent as a plain text message. Both of these problems can be solved using digital signatures and encryption. In fact your E-mail program probably already supports one of the two most popular forms. Microsoft products and Netscape directly support the S/MIME using digital certificates from companies like Verisign and Thawte. Mozilla will eventually support S/MIME. PGP was the original signature and encryption program. It has plug-ins to add PGP support in Eudora, Outlook, and Outlook Express. While it used to be popular on Linux and other *nix systems it has since been replaced by GPG which is based on the Open-PGP standard. While I don't know whats popular on the Mac I do know that support for both is available. Both systems require the use of digital certificates. S/MIME certificates are generally issued by a certificate authority (CA) such as Verisign or Thawte. Because the CA must verify your ID before issuing the certificate they usually charge money for them. The more capabilities the certificate has such as code signing or e-commerce, the more verification is needed, the higher the cost. This is a yearly fee since the certificates expire after one year. PGP/GPG certificates on the other hand are created by you. This means you can create as many as you want which is most useful when you have more than one E-mail account and don't want to use the same certificate for all of them. The owners ID is verified by checking the signatures on the certificate. More on this can be found at the GPG site.
My PGP/GPG key:
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org mQGiBDSWJokRBADardHVQ1nDztZwVXwbyUjwPLFU7YzoNoDDsw4HJzL6HgFOJH3/ D6YFko+EExM3RWLprnN7e/a0PXINCFC66LEXeUxe8boUt0Zdp5AOR/KJHUSaXo2V 5B1z7A+RYvwesGaT6ilrbmHB+sMhn6vy0J4ZjYfRizVveca6ydDtqFxXQQCg/6Yg 57nOfxW2xG1/+f51gCsPIbUEAJq6tjnDmmqoGkvUPJtQA4HfeW4oMclnlR0+5pMo fO1D2aAcVbfKMW3rAIdYLBgBBLR1KPAuDJLqMDOI26H8UBfcND69JT+Xk7ce5Fn+ bHpqteX1+F38wgOR/4xDM7bqUJwY8ebBtK039ZpLju3bGP2rKDh/sZSHwFuN3/F+ gk+gBACyeg9+UHkmz8orhmqm6K0TYPRNQSEghULaqX8c2WtEJEtZ5+wbZn/LVCer GGex39eQEitRNeg+MefgIzofb2ayq86gi4ZdLnp6md9pUCvoF5xbT4Gm4eg/8jec tcFwqXyr5PvkjeI3fC/+rNPDFbi6gFsxCcS8ZGS6n23nG8Cc17QiS2VubmV0aCBI YWxleSA8a2hhbGV5QGJpZ2Zvb3QuY29tPohLBBARAgALBQI0liaJBAsDAQIACgkQ Bf2yThWDHa+FFgCgtvJTHYM6/ZcO3bYuExsudzdNIBUAoLdxvySFYvGk1U4g1Oaw dAkGAYlQtCFLZW5uZXRoIEhhbGV5IDxoYWxleWtkQHlhaG9vLmNvbT6ISwQQEQIA CwUCOFdRkwQLAwECAAoJEAX9sk4Vgx2vnR8An1d2uFNSIfUY1XG8CKxxACkEel2n AKDTTxCPMn3xb8x2xRnJfKK/9ylwJrkBjQQ0liaKEAYA+PVZX9x2Uk89PY3bzpnh V5JZzf24rnRPxfx2vIPFRzBhznzJZv8V+bv9kV7HAarTW56NoKVyOtQa8L9GAFgr 5fSI/VhOSdvNILSd5JEHNmszbDgNRR0PfIizHHxbLY7288kjwEPwpVsYjY67VYy4 XTjTNP18F1dDox0YbN4zISy1Kv884bEpQBgRjXyEpwpy1obEAxnIByl6ypUM2Zaf q9AKUJsCRtMIPWakXUGfnHy9iUsiGSa6q6Jew1XpWHxHAAICBf0WMS3Fvw719MBV w+4t7cJPZyqBMQMFaz25mvf6dezI9sFudJ5cn7skTHikOK6zYYTwSaT3rjqbGqfd Yw5w8b2pd568q/LeKjMgaabAx7OGQMqpOYyTiWYsdQtG8G+t6Wf8aEBGHssSpXwQ L72j+A113q8nnS5izu2yP4MgBX08rxywHlW5s+x/Jd418HE2YqpiO3MOtfHGXl8t 1AIHXe/veyTnQY6BSyusSus5A1NbB0+lOH8qU16lEK1ZBVO+qJOIPwMFGDSWJooF /bJOFYMdrxEC+DgAmgPza6v7TwSsVdjeNmcRp7qHGkfKAJ0dfQ9vWEgqFFyys5ta GSJ3gR+1K4hGBCgRAgAGBQI6n0D5AAoJEAX9sk4Vgx2vfHwAoN0CAr+DzNKNFJPw kc3wrDGXNFnVAKD8JBZeSUBonYykivzEKQUh8Nb1dbkDDQQ6nfNwEAwAzB13VyQ4 SuLE8OiOE2eXTpITYfbb6yUOF/32mPfIfHmwch04dfv2wXPEgxEmK0Ngw+Po1gr9 oSgmC66prrNlD6IAUwGgfNaroxIe+g8qzh90hE/K8xfzpEDp19J3tkItAjbBJsto Xp18mAkKjX4t7eRdefXUkk+bGI78KqdLfDL2Qle3CH8IF3KiutapQvMF6PlTETlP tvFuuUs4INoBp1ajFOmPQFXz0AfGy0OplK33TGSGSfgMg71l6RfUodNQ+PVZX9x2 Uk89PY3bzpnhV5JZzf24rnRPxfx2vIPFRzBhznzJZv8V+bv9kV7HAarTW56NoKVy OtQa8L9GAFgr5fSI/VhOSdvNILSd5JEHNmszbDgNRR0PfIizHHxbLY7288kjwEPw pVsYjY67VYy4XTjTNP18F1dDox0YbN4zISy1Kv884bEpQBgRjXyEpwpy1obEAxnI Byl6ypUM2Zafq9AKUJsCRtMIPWakXUGfnHy9iUsiGSa6q6Jew1XpTDJvAAICDADA uNrA2cVemrLssG/MulcAseeD69ECY3c/GbxNFS40AUgWjeG6DEhfwTYB0fy4geRZ AhNjlVOEbZH4si9GesatKGiw3THK6ESvCFjR9bpu290Hoph9jleB/3M//r7Rr8zH uHxLE0MjrVWv00d5X4bcveHPH3o9vtiKQwvyAc7o4vQ9kcTsXIvlsbVipO9IUAR0 plpeKqwdYzKBX9D+B1yf80RzqudDRAvj+z8uVktDXUmt3kzDfm0XqkKvYN+xx4E+ au6WrUZng+oh9mK+nu6jAae0ErxAGe3Zb4ywzsnzn53j+8O3lErQlqX5dfRyzclD M6zT7jAA65NnqDEiv43/ftJlaPKal0VERHehZDNreTJYH84o+eJdvvKPgE+KIoyG aPNjk3KqmyUDYot1AgxH/cnj5jSRPOfY5V+ocENwYi0RIWq+eQPP4VFXccPCBVYC 3bbVyiO42HoAD+tfwpBvDinIDwSWpd/iILB2Fe04osNc4IH7aPtBGApOf2+8CaaI RgQYEQIABgUCOp9AyQAKCRAF/bJOFYMdr/hpAJ9o1O1ifLixSAn5cGA1AGwUY0Mr ygCcC4MXbpkZB9DJQ/6gyztsa4PARp0= =xlYH -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- |