PGP( Pretty Good Privacy)

What is PGP?

The technology can be helpful but harmful at the same time. As we all know, Sending emails or sensitive information through the internet can be nail-biting. Hackers are so advanced that they might be even monitoring us, our emails, social media accounts or bank accounts. So, how do we communicate without having the information leaked. We have a Pretty Good solution for this problem which is “Pretty Good Privacy(PGP)”.

PGP was created back in 1991 by Phil Zimmermann(Software Engineer) He was an anti-nuclear activist, and wanted a way to transfer information securely over the Internet. He got into trouble with the US government in 1993 because A vast number of countries around the globe got to know about PGP, violating US export restrictions for cryptographic software.

Currently, Symantec is the owner of “PGP”. but OpenPGP, an e-mail encryption standard, is implemented by multiple software because OpenPGP is free of cost and PGP is not.

Working of PGP :-

You have a public key (to lock/encrypt the message) and a private key (to unlock/decrypt the message). You would send the public key to all your friends so that they can encrypt sensitive messages that they want to send to you. Once you receive an encrypted message, you use your private key to decrypt it.

PGP is very easy to understand, on the surface. Imagine you want to send your credit card information to a friend and you write it on a piece of paper. You then put the paper in a box and send it by mail.

A thief can easily steal the box and look at the paper that contains your credit card information. What could you do instead? You decide to put a key lock on the box, but you realize that you have to send the key along with the box. That’s no good.

What if you meet your friend in person to share the key beforehand? That could work, right? It could, but then both of you have a key that allows to unlock the box. You, as the sender, will never need to open the box again after closing it. By keeping a copy of a key that can unlock the box, you are creating a vulnerability.

Finally, you found just the right solution: you’ll have two keys. The first key will only be able to lock the box. The second key will only be able to open the box. That way, only the person who needs to get the content of the box has the key that allows them to unlock it.

In summary…

• Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) allows you to send files and messages securely over the Internet
• PGP generates a public key (to encrypt messages) and a private key (to decrypt messages)
• OpenPGP is an e-mail encryption standard