- What Is PGP? GPG?
- Why Should You Care?
- Is GPG Hard to Use?
- Does It Work with Other Crypto Programs?
- Where Can You Find GPG?
- How Does It Work?
- How to Install It
- How to Use It
- Passphrase
- Generate Your Key
- Export Your Key
- Key Management Window
- Importing a Key via the Clipboard
- Importing a Key from the Key Server Network
- Open the GPG Text Editor
- Right-Click Menu
- File Encryption/Decryption
- Problems?
- Possible Legal Hazards
- Resources
Where Can You Find GPG?
You’re looking for the GPG GUI shell program installed with your distribution. Although GPG can run from the command line, it’s just as much fun as the pre-GUI versions of PGP were. (I’ve been using PGP since version 1.0.)
Check the menus in Fedora Core 2: (in KDE) Start > Accessories > KGPG.
This article relates specifically to the KGPG/GPG setup. Using any other front-end will be conceptually similar—you have to do the same things regardless of what kind of GPG or even PGP you are using and regardless of platform. You have to do the following:
- Generate a key pair.
- Export your public key to those with whom you want to communicate securely.
- Import the public keys of those with whom you want to communicate securely.
- Sign documents with your key.
- Verify documents signed by others.
- Encrypt documents with someone else’s public key.
- Decrypt documents with your private key.
Mandriva, Debian, and SuSE come with GPG—look around the desktop (it’s a padlock icon) and the menus. Many programs are digitally signed with gpg and one has to have it to verify that the programs don’t contain additional surprises not put in by the developers.
If you use a Gnome desktop, see if Seahorse or GPA is in your menus.
If you find nothing, go to a terminal and enter the following:
<pre>locate gpg</pre>
If that still turns up nothing, read the "How to Install It" section of this article.