Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)PGP (short for Pretty Good Privacy) is a highly secure public key encryption program originally written by Philip Zimmermann. Over the past few years, PGP has got thousands of adherent supporters all over the globe and has become a de-facto standard for encryption of email on the Internet. As most people routinely use envelopes to insure the privacy and safety of their written correspondance, More & more people are using PGP to insure the privacy and safety of their e-mail & files. If you don't know whether PGP is something for you, Please take some time to read Phil Zimmermann's article on why you should use PGP. Adam Back has written a history of PGP.
PGP is available for many different platforms, including Unix, VMS, MS-DOS, Windows, OS/2, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari and Archimedes.
The latest freeware versions of PGP are 6.0.2 and the older 2.6.2 which runs on more platforms. However, there are many other versions of PGP, both freeware and commercial.
The PGP documentation is a good starting point. If you have a question about PGP, it is probably answered in one of the many FAQ's. A number of PGP books are also available. There is a FAQ on where to get PGP here.
Contrary to what many people seem to think, PGP is perfectly legal to use, provided that you choose the right version and don't download the program from a site in the USA if you're somewhere else in the world.
The best starting point for PGP exploration on the web is probably the International PGP Home Page.
William
Knowles
erehwon@dis.org
PGP Key & Trust
Information
Last updated 2.15.99
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