Send And Secure Your Emails To Me With PGP

This is the public key of my PGP key set. Installing it into your own PGP application will allow you to send me a PGP encrypted email, with the security and confidence that your message will be unread by anyone else but me.

What Is PGP?

PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy and has been around since 1991. Although it can seem quite complicated to understand from the outset, it is a rather simple solution to the issue of privacy. Not only can one secure and digitally encrypt an email between two parties, you can of course encrypt a file on your hard disk or cloud file server. There are other benefits such as signatures to provide provenance that the sender is genuine, but we will leave that for the time being and you can research that in your own time. Here is some good reading from the OpenPGP protocol page.

How Does It Work?

In simple terms, two people will create two keys, one is private and one is public. These keys are stored on a keychain. Person [a] will share is public key to person [b] and person [b] shares his public key to person [a]. On [a]’s keyring, he will have his private key, his public key and now the public key of person [b]. Similar, on person [b]’s keyring, he will have his private key, his public key and the public key of person [a].

Either of person [a] or [b] can encrypt any of their own files with their private key and use the public key of their friend to send an encrypted email. Person [a] will simply encrypt an email to person [b] with the public key of person [b] and upon receipt, person [b] will decrypt with his private key. The email is thus encrypted through the full Internet email system from one computer to another. It is safe from snooping and any emails stored or archived on an Internet server remain encrypted for ever.

What Software Do I Need?

You will need to install a software app or program that will bind to your email software and become your keychain. Please note that this is unlikely to work with any webmail service. You will need to find the correct program or app that installs and binds to your email program/app. This is probably the most complicated thing to do but once done, the rest is a breeze. Here’s a link to the OpenPGP application page. Some are free and some are commercial. Simply pick the app that works with your email software and operating system. I use the GPGSuite from GPGTools for my MacMail client. Many of these apps will allow free trials, so what’s to lose?

Then What?

The next thing to do is create your PGP keys. Each app will be different, so simply follow the app instructions to create your key pair and add to your keychain. Then, send me a copy of your public key and ask me for a copy of mine. Add my public key to your keychain and I will add your public key to my keychain and then we can communicate in private.

My Key

You can copy and paste my Public key below into your keychain if you prefer.

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- mQINBF02zAsBEADYoViblWdcVFa//wDKwX58FKrVXp2DsUiUNdyRlT/9I8Zw+TNm 5zfNkxQTKZKSIYpkn07nqQ4crjasp0iDpd+N6jCMIXRGFowdcJZEazqAKtLTNs3C TYUSp45kmtQIO0/Ru3kDM2H1edsvSVQFrCjZpOoyPN6ZPw1RxaJblCzHuhzxcsvI tZyrqHAISxHS8KT35hGVJuqlQI2POknXJAAOu939ezXu4x4UTIE3zWpReutbqAvC 7ljqUmFgaU1mTPJej6yzhyIDZw39GMqhmbY9MwGD1Rn8Ebk1hJeIBTzVAzO4Xd1m lOID8zTUbGbdvIK72gpcevDSrXOC6jW2kAMhm5Y8c/FiJYFTteQen+BeXxECNWWN AKwQpEcs300lrkyIN+vZ4v9EIzSrND9JsIwJTa9fiIyolb/OnrkMfvHMZZ8tJxLm rX+QbvMG+y4Wv9YgrSIjji4bniEFi8TPzWqkWXuCJPx82xvyetXax25adwVRMYJk j3sjX1ZOYzAnRNDIQ0aRgGw/xdSRQOHRhSQyfIigfN4kPgbY6ItxDQWeD5Qn2C4O NgeVDVDBkVaPbk39HXbkTCtVhU6v67O3VizYR5SfSbvN05LUgvhJ6fOy6FVrzLyC iMnwXw20+gs7IQngTzwCQW/ltc34O8FYA5JfKu88h1/NcqKSIftswjuEiwARAQAB tBRNYXJrIExld2lzIDxtQHJrLnRvPokCTgQTAQgAOBYhBAb2LhuTEJqI39E9L5ac gV6aOLzFBQJdNswLAhsDBQsJCAcCBhUKCQgLAgQWAgMBAh4BAheAAAoJEJacgV6a OLzF67oP/i39XdMNMuDyA6gBjYV8qda2FLVRKYPzwnpka+qDLvucgZDDl1cAw+KR fX4Jx1hbAGQsbIRp3gKIUNNUAO/d5grwgTW2eu2Dbmihb8De7XuGdfVoATtoNyDu YsGxaaeuO9+EaezphPm6G3PusfpJof2BIKlxLWv89cqu0XEj9D9gQXk7WdhXF5fR d+UvPFKt1oqyIQ9l1/LpeoxrXr4gajIfqVFyXPsyVvI4Z8Xdmz+SiiYKPK77Yb7B Ia4fNwxj+s3M8nVdAd/d4gB+sbF6NrfLev6ZbxI9RNN8yVYXv82GN5TogmPVSyB9 Zts682WoJSgedqdzaSn33w2jtqM39c6lFy1CynRuyMOqlViuDlFwCG4ys/6VwL4T 8v4ZtrxspHvlxdeC0I7FKebAY4s5PCDtNLBGXZMlbod+EmiTXpncH8o+jkQkHpWR 9R9e5nUV50H/hJF1ddKQ/f71YOPd5l/4vPsYZfy6NTIfrKdv/lQrX0aVwleSPDK+ utoAtjok4eRFaxniJNkGOPK9wGkhPSvMVRV6+kzb8/1UkPZJGQ9FWxq8JhS7aa0y 0/yWMCCxRyB54XxW6Zvj3c/TeYa2jXM1fg/k5AXvptY5dS3KENyT6O4kMVMppXnR 6O9t6ifCuX2z+dfVuHOpac4tQBELUMnOXMTP3pFJYxdlXTxZjYF2uQINBF02zAsB EADHRJWIq+lFOAI7s6SmI6X16TwOi1eolB2R/rKH9tcyuMeEQzgYb+Et4KZ4MdGT zXqi8KGBCjOD9nx8Ew7sRU5ChoIwGJjFlZsu8I/S+62XBrpTZH5nbvX4LJ6FuEe3 SFuwCIwUIq3e+SXaPYWG24ABUiCbcbjMp5hMptsFxATUOm+EDo3AJIDZoCxRA7hz 3lLyHSpWPBMsv3J2FOxUY21b7KE9jYGeAxaPe5SM1pgVgzupcfYgc3o8hp8rAfKi BnBU4f1cYFbs79ecQOlvRIlWy+u++ppE9GceuGlhw6/RdWopLSJNUF3yJxUqCAap cJSDxONsISKYeYJHoAz39r0kZ7UDFi/lDrkhlclTwagRvYfv58FpzK+eReelAuzE aV8YnyCYvGuyqbZLs4NBKwr0xXtX9BFAlWpbyaEJcwgyQok2skfJDNfjd7zqsWqQ 4gyxJBKnWS8EJwgXgWAZkjPt8A6zwrB1V0C5GieE6C1222bfUbzwy7UYc9EKNYEp gn9J61aoI293/aPmjz7PJmukzZRTgKJoZgMZ3QfiqEDCA+CV32PQStcx3cxyIyi3 ujwq/UODhtfC6tZ6y99lXUIIYsdTivqIqNKV2vF/Xm1JwTQjrgzJvh3TzYKH72CQ ZVSUai6LjeF1wtmBXTyEV8x8E6Khu29/wfXBFBsaivXirwARAQABiQI2BBgBCAAg FiEEBvYuG5MQmojf0T0vlpyBXpo4vMUFAl02zAsCGwwACgkQlpyBXpo4vMU3ARAA 12P0LGkSQjZLxy0ACtYoZ+s2EkJV5cAbzvss4u+ph+zX9hsAZA2hgwvAnd9IRh8J SQ5gL8sMlixsAg/n6Z9k8e82ZSj2O/eo2Xk/koIMzVASlwI/Jol+IlMOZbfWq9bo 8L98Wi/q12ZtwTgOK7QX5o7vErQjV8qT/3wh5zs2edkvQzhmEPHW0qVTneZB/gr1 aP2X3Ac1xCtQpEpXYEA56mKV5pJ5EzLxb0k2xhET7f/9rj3GARCIMVvcqGujWEFy RAklf8BV3wvL+vb8aDr9n91CJdfEYt5X6oO83v7JIJLNXulcRmEUlA66hdDz1h07 ogXMPaz0eW0SQnvn62JWKjN55qt3YfwwhHa9ma5MOSIEf41oOOCI/oftHXZupzvA l4+ABvGDlckvNCIvW/gPBJ1IeFR2AEjW7YfzthKL9yj5/V3ZZebMIc2BDI8nfL9h 8xKGQzsDAwDuiAXzfe6q/+ki+htAIK812x5uq49Aouj4Y80Pxd6b09bN/TmyqZxZ OXRHtIqS1zXFqHmuAt0KbFcvjIg7QaTP37EfoyQQf1yUlwlNWjYUoBoOLH23twtM NAvAde67yPQwwRs+Hh+Jgq69s5mAebj7oFTzcYyJJBdqMVZgzQffVObAW6xpEFJc wdjpTskKRzG47TNIndAnjMW5BSJFp/jJ3hxaZ5L3J28= =j5A/ -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Important Note

The most important thing here is that you will secure both your private and public key with a pass phrase. Yup, a pass phrase and not a password. This pass phrase can be uppercase, lowercase, include spaces and any special characters. Remember is and never forget it. Failure to remember is will mean you will never be able to decrypt any email or file ever. Never, ever, ever!