From TNPC issue #4.25...

PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) - Protecting Your Files

by Dan Butler
December 13, 2001

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) has proven to be a versatile tool in any privacy toolkit. Past articles of this series taught you how to hide your passwords in plain sight, send messages encrypted, and send encrypted files to someone who doesn't have PGP. A handy toolkit for privacy, when you'll use it.

I wanted to mention a couple of helpful tips sent in by fellow security-conscious readers of The Naked PC. First, instead of saving a copy of what you are encrypting to a text file, several of you reminded me it's just as easy to add your PGP key to the list of recipients. Now both you and your friend will have encrypted copies of the message. Easy and handy. In fact, PGP has an option to "Always encrypt to default key". With this option checked you'll always be able to decrypt anything you've encrypted to someone else, just supply your private key.

This go-round you'll learn how to keep files on your system encrypted until you need them. Any of the following techniques work for leaving files on your system or sending them to someone else.

[more...]

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