Instructions:
To download the program (PGP Freeware V 6.5.8. This version is
fixed, the ‘alleged’ bug that has been discovered in PGP
was in versions 5.5
through 6.5.3):
Go
to this address: http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html,
go approximately at the middle of the page until you will find “ How
to obtain PGP Freeware from MIT”.
In this table
you have to download according to your system operator: Win95/98/NT/2000
and click on the link “download”. The next page is a form
that you have to read and answer. Click on submit at the end.
On the next
page go down and click on the correspondent link and will appear
the window to download the file: “PGPFW658Win32.zip”.
It’s going to take more or less, 45 minutes depending on the
speed of your modem.
Because this
is a “zip” file you have to unzip or unpack it with a
software like WinZip or Windows Commander. After that you just have
to install the program following the instructions.
Understanding PGP:
What the program does, is encrypt your documents: email, pictures,
word, excel, power point documents, etc. You can encrypt any document
that you want to be sent through the computer. If the
message gets intercepted it will be impossible to be read it if
the recipient doesn’t have the right key to open it.
An encrypted document means that is scrambled in a way that nobody
can read it if he doesn’t have the right key to put it back
together.
To be able to use PGP, the sender and receiver, both have to have
PGP installed in the computer and have each other’s public
keys. When you receive an encrypted message with PGP it will automatically
open a window asking for your password. As soon as you type this
in, the message will open and you can read it normally.
To be able to use PGP, you have to create a pair of keys. One will
be your “secret or private key” with your password
that the program will use to open the encrypted document sent to
you. This secret key has to be kept secret because if somebody has
it, he will be able to open your encrypted documents. The other
"public key”, will be used to encrypt
any document that somebody wants to send to you. You can give it
to anybody that you want to have correspondence. Doesn’t matter
if a third person has it, the only thing that he can do is encrypt
documents that can be opened only with your secret key. Even you
can put your public key in an Internet public server for anybody
to download and send encrypted documents to you.
When you have created a key pair they will appear in the PGP keys
window, a new key with a little face on it. This is your key pair.
After that you have to extract you public key to give it to other
people. To do that select your key pair and click on the menu “Keys
/ Export”, will appear a windows asking where you want to save
the file that has your public key (the name that you give to your
key and the extension, asc, [ yourname.asc ] ). This is the
file that you have to send to others).
To send encrypted documents to other people you have to have their
public key and tell the program that you want to encrypt your document
with this specific public key. For example to send an encrypted
email to John, if you are using Eudora or Outlook, these programs
have an icon of PGP in their menu and after finishing your email,
just click on the icon to encrypt it and the PGPkeys window will
appear for you to choose the public key that the program will use
to encrypt the email. You just ‘select’ this person’s ‘public
key’ and your email will be encrypted using this person’s
encryption algorithm.
If you are using other email programs that don’t have the
icon, you will have to encrypt the document through the “PGPtools”
window and clicking on the icon “Encrypt”. A window will
open asking you which document you want to encrypt and it will be
saved in the same directory of your original document. You have
to send it like an attachment.
PGP can also encrypt sections of your hard drive. You can separate file directories and even entire programs into an encrypted section of your computer that is hidden from the normal directory. To do this, read the instructions for the ‘PGP Disk’ on the pop-up menu.
How to start:
Once downloaded onto your computer, the program will install an
icon (a gray padlock) on the bottom-right side of the screen, in
your task bar. Give a click in it and in the menu that appears,
click "launch PGP keys”.
All the keys that appear in the window are sample keys where you
can experiment with them and delete them if you want.
In doing this you won’t get confused with the good keys
you want to use.
From this window you can manage your keys and create your own pair
of keys. It’s all automatic, just follow the prompts.
This program has quite a good “help” section where you
can find the way to do any operation that you need. For example,
to find how to create a pair of keys, open “help” on the
menu of the window and type “creating” on Index or Find
and select “creating a key pair”, click on display and
follow the instructions.
Also in “Contents” (we still are in Help), you can find
all the instructions to understand a little bit more the program
and how to manage all the functions.
Once you are set up, using the program is incredibly easy, just
point and click! And
once you have the ability to communicate in a high level of security,
you will wonder why you never did it sooner!
(PGP KEY) To be
able to start the encrypted communication download
our PGP key! The text of the encrypted key will display
on your screen, just highlight and copy the whole text, after click
on your pgp icon on the bottom right of your computer screen and
select the option 'Ad key from the clipboard' and follow the instructions.
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