Encrypting Your Mails

Most people today are using technology blindly. Well, I say this because it has been very hard for most over us to read software user agreements before installing them in our computers. This is just a tip of the iceberg. There is much more that threatens the security of our data and information while transacting it with others online. One of the areas where security of information has been highly compromised is with our emails. Pretty Good Privacy or simply written as PGP is a protocol used for the encryption of e-mails. It works based on an end-to-end format where messages get encrypted on your personal computer and can only be decrypted through the message recipient. This leaves no chance of any one in between to decipher the mail content of what has already been encrypted in your mail message. This does not include the subject headlines and the “to” and “from” addresses that cannot be encrypted in this given protocol.

This process involves the installation of required tools on your computer operating system before the encryption can get up and running. PGP email encryption can be managed by such things as Enigmail, an extension of Thunderbird software. However, the process of installation is usually different for PGP/Engimail for Windows, Max OSX and Ubuntu. Therefore, it is important to make sure you observe the differing requirements for each. One of the most important concepts in the encryption of mails is the use of what is commonly known as key-pairs. A key-pair is merely two different files sitting on either your USB stick or your hard-disk. When you are about to encrypt mails for a specific mail-account, you will require these files available to you in some form. If they are on your computer at home, you may not be able to decrypt mail while at your office. However, storing them on a USB stick will do well in offering a solution to this challenge. A key-pair comprises of two various keys: a secret key and a public one. The public key can be given to any other person in order to be able to send your encrypted mails. In this case, the file does not need to be a secret. The secret key is fundamentally your secret file used in decrypting your emails as received from other people. In this case, it should not be given to anyone else other than you.

One thing to note is that, you need other people’s public key while sending encrypted mails to them. For instance, if you have five colleagues at your place of work and want to send some encrypted mails to them, get public keys assigned for their individual addresses. They can be sent via an ordain mail, delivered via a website, in a USB stick or be given in person. The means of delivering the key does not matter. The most important thing is to make sure that you can trust them and that the keys belong to the intended person of correspondence. The same case applies when people are sending encrypted mails to you. They need your public key. To enjoy the benefits of having encrypted mails for the reason of enhancing your security, ask an expert today!