PGP and GPG Encryption for Email
Set up and use GPG to sign and encrypt emails, and understand the PGP Web of Trust model.
Phil Zimmermann and the Birth of PGP
Phil Zimmermann released Pretty Good Privacy in 1991, making strong encryption available to ordinary people for the first time. The US government initially investigated him for exporting munitions without a license because encryption was classified as a weapon. The case was dropped in 1996, and PGP became a landmark in personal privacy technology.
Public and Private Key Pairs in PGP
PGP uses asymmetric cryptography: you generate a mathematically linked key pair. The public key can be shared freely and is used by others to encrypt messages to you. The private key is kept secret and is used to decrypt those messages. Losing your private key means losing access to all encrypted data.
All lessons in this course
- Why Email Is Inherently Insecure
- PGP and GPG Encryption for Email
- S/MIME in Enterprise Email
- End-to-End Encryption in Modern Messaging