PGP Desktop The Most Advanced Protection for Data Currently Available Forrest Stroud
Key Generation Wizard
If it all sounds a bit confusing, no need to worry -- PGP handles all of the tricky details for you. A Key Generation Wizard will create a key pair for you composed of a public key and a private key. You can then use a public key server to send out your public key to others as well as to retrieve the public keys of your friends.
Additionally, PGP features Automatic Key Retrieval which will contact a public key server automatically when you attempt to send a message to a PGP user without knowing their public key. This is all you need to do in order to begin sending and receiving encrypted e-mail -- it's that simple.
Message Encryption/Decryption Plug-ins
Similarly, PGP makes the actual process of encrypting and decrypting your messages a straightforward process. The client offers seamless integration with Eudora Pro and Light (versions 3.0 and later) and functions as a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook and Exchange. If you use another mail client you can access PGP via either PGPmenu (a context menu plug-in offering clipboard encryption) or PGPtray (clipboard encryption accessible from a system traybar application).
PGP also allows you to encrypt/sign or decrypt/verify files on your desktop directly from the Windows Explorer. File formats that can be used with PGP include Web pages, documents, spreadsheets, sound bytes, video clips, and more.
The Most Advanced Protection for Data Currently Available
The result of PGP's focus on privacy and authenticity is the most advanced protection for your data currently available. While earlier versions of PGP used RSA to generate keys, the newer versions offer the option of creating keys based on the more sophisticated DSS/Diffie-Hellman technology.
Keys generated using the RSA technology max out at 1024-bit security, while the newer technology allows for up to 4096-bit security (the strength of the security is user-definable). As a gauge of the strength of PGP's security, a Web browser in comparison can only use a maximum of 128-bit security.
