newbie at GPG (GnuPG)

Ok I am a newbie at PGP encrypted email, just started trying it today. Since
I have Mandriva Linux, I used gpg. Hope I am doing it correctly, any
advice/help/tips welcomed!

Opened a terminal as user and typed
gpg --gen-key
to generate key, etc. Not sure how it all works-- I assume the passphrase I
use is secret and I should not tell it to anybody? So I used Evolution to
create an email, then chose the menu option of Security:encrypt, then sent
it to myself. When receiving it, I was asked for the passphrase, typed it,
and lo and behold the email message appeared and was decrypted! Seems like
a useful thing for sending sensitive emails to friends.

On 2005-07-01, Protagoras <protagoras@miworld.net> wrote:

> Ok I am a newbie at PGP encrypted email, just started trying it today. Since
> I have Mandriva Linux, I used gpg. Hope I am doing it correctly, any
> advice/help/tips welcomed!
>
> Opened a terminal as user and typed
> gpg --gen-key
> to generate key, etc. Not sure how it all works-- I assume the passphrase I
> use is secret and I should not tell it to anybody? So I used Evolution to
> create an email, then chose the menu option of Security:encrypt, then sent
> it to myself. When receiving it, I was asked for the passphrase, typed it,
> and lo and behold the email message appeared and was decrypted! Seems like
> a useful thing for sending sensitive emails to friends.

Yup, but a lot of people can't be bothered with it anyway.

--

-John (john@os2.dhs.org)

On Fri, 01 Jul 2005 15:06:49 -0500,
Protagoras <protagoras@miworld.net> wrote:

[ gnupg ]
> Not sure how it all works-- I assume the passphrase I
> use is secret and I should not tell it to anybody?

You might find The GNU Privacy Handbook useful, as it goes through all
the basics. <http://www.gnupg.org/gph/en/manual.html>

--
Mark Hill

Protagoras wrote:
> Ok I am a newbie at PGP encrypted email, just started trying it today. Since
> I have Mandriva Linux, I used gpg. Hope I am doing it correctly, any
> advice/help/tips welcomed!
>
> Opened a terminal as user and typed
> gpg --gen-key
> to generate key, etc. Not sure how it all works-- I assume the passphrase I
> use is secret and I should not tell it to anybody? So I used Evolution to
> create an email, then chose the menu option of Security:encrypt, then sent
> it to myself. When receiving it, I was asked for the passphrase, typed it,
> and lo and behold the email message appeared and was decrypted! Seems like
> a useful thing for sending sensitive emails to friends.
>

Absolutely right, secure your private key as good as you can (usb stick,
floppy, whatever). Upload your public key to the keyservers and tell all
your contacts.

It's just a question of time to find private unencrypted emails on the
Net via data warehouses.

Eric