Privacy and Encryption

Why Should You Use PGP?

According to an old survey conducted by the American Management Association (www.amanet.org), 63 percent of major companies in America monitor their employees by checking their Internet connections, while 47 percent store and review their e-mail.
Of course this is done to ensure that employees are following company policies in regard to proper usage of e-mail and internet privledges.
Just something to think about the next time you get or send any “humorous” messages.
PGP uses encryption to scramble and “lock” information so only someone that has a “key” can unscramble and read the information.
It is very useful for securing email either by signing the text (which will verify if it has been tampered with) or encrypting it so only the recepient (with a key) will be able to decrypt the message (useful if you suspect someone is intercepting and reading your messages).
Since I have cluttered up servers with my keys in the past when I was practicing my PGP encryption. I have decided to place my current PGP key here so it would be accessable by all. If you are not farmiliar with PGP or encryption take a look at the links below and do a search on Google.

Note: Since Network Associates has said they will not be releasing the source code for PGP, I have started using GnuPG. GnuPG is open source and therefore has less chance of “backdoors” since thousands of volunteers are looking for just such a thing.

PGP Links

Below are some links to guides I have found useful on how you can begin using PGP or GnuPG. Be aware that some might contain dated material, but the information is still relevant.

Tom McCune’s Page
Poole’s Tutorial
GNU Privacy Guard
WinPT for GnuPG

WinPT releases a precompiled binary (an installer) that includes GnuPG. If you decide to use GnuPG and WinPT this is an easy install.

Privacy Links

No recommendations here. Just some places to look at when you are bored.

Hushmail
Perfectly Private
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
Privacy International
The Electronic Privacy Information Center
Note: You may have to highlight the text below (and possibly copy to the clipboard) for PGP to Decrypt and Verify.

My Public Key

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (MingW32)mQGiBEVsWMsRBADciCArp5yt/FzRGnAJh7GxHGuLHjmeN9/KJ1h7qApZkdHk7Rly

CEV2ebZZOL/xhFlcpNrt+MruTSwl4dAFhYIdFZw0l+7xYNzR65wywTZx6Ertj+by

clBjkUSaYo9jOzAHAh1RLerWV2PDCOWRJ1Fz/wPgoCqFLwWVmJJIvyvYLwCgviTs

ATkHNGs4Mpgj3u8HFbGkWOUD/jWL40iWbdq4cBeQpXeGinflsp+AzWg6LooYT9JD

IVvxf4DCxKkqc66ZKKS4lJy8Pv112XC2phiboHyjxRb4tnqLio0tYvA5JBpQ9fNe

JUPkcWbeiDFZ2WEicW5PhhnmEazPIYfyrkvyZyrarNb3J1ueEN6OM8nwTI7lAq84

foraA/95DRmm7XNSpSpFMBEN43nPAIeM8EqbTD7AH4CRygrgI12BFxA2IgKJHVfE

2Rw45suDW0es3Z6h3Z0pa9OG7NzedQ3CTwTcokKtYoaVCDThpbp2K5Jehvld59Yp

PDl5qTw7KDU4Hfip/4vs4+VVB/mat3Vv7FLlqv6JwLDPXSy6dLQrUHJlc3RvbiBC

b3lpbmd0b24gPHByZXN0b24ubGlzdHNAZ21haWwuY29tPohmBBMRAgAmBQJFbFjL

AhsjBQkJZgGABgsJCAcDAgQVAggDBBYCAwECHgECF4AACgkQ4d5Bdwav4yyA6gCf

XZ/uS7+5aW03cXCGkCTJlUP3DbgAn36TAQZR91QTo5xGn7F1HPi0Xrc3uQINBEVs

WOEQCACz4QdGWquh6iFXtkPWxiRfgheps9n2n9JPf6Tt2/QVxFMSKvBCXLTkwq/n

2Pj3DHKmmnPPxS3A5zHpE8E2uCrL21JTgGCuWPLl98CjnA71WK93OU85P1l1rWFC

u08ZlIHCpcjzB9oco6mV0OaSuaS2BQJXGw3/4f1beWouiPIEm2SIZ8w5x3cFzzQ4

NcQl36BYO8Vask4utUnZZTzZk9gnVULx9lnD3dm7LeVG30BKytVdqgHSZmb9q7TR

aJi4Asx8lSWGMlbN9/h4HwGN0fIhHmM56+pYwipu/UeSmksSCbhndNS1UOcoKKQg

/Gr8TcBasy+oyF1NqZPk22QvoBkrAAMFB/wPHEr4a++7wrNLjx5SxfZz2+raa2Pk

IiIelD5TzTgAFoMwNgeltUfWUauNwIam6eYQiQmiHp4R0GDdJo2eSqsvISvCjtoR

jUbLEunU4hE7Alww9DgsoGeTZA2yInGDIZmDac6SrOcBwPUxjPAuMwMdJ+REOcdK

qArNbBeR3/NLDoFk88V3jfbX6rgAP0EmLZtCbajEy4f74EZ2hqtVYgvVKsEII1C0

c0gSuFCiBIz92D1v/hfCnTjEM2DxVx6cIXqb+bQct20t51QqVURouNWS4kbjKDyD

fEQqH9zOheF7w4XP3tRNQLoO8UDtcNY5TqPCGbriVO56YVX4O+//2u0IiE8EGBEC

AA8FAkVsWOECGwwFCQlmAYAACgkQ4d5Bdwav4ywqzACeJRh0+dEMGqG4HbofezeL

4e/p+lAAnjwp9xmxQhncnsWUGomRAUMvn4v0

=r5D8

-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----