Guy Fawkes Theater: How to encrypt your email

[Taverner]

Now with both Republican AND Democratic parties engaging in the willful spying on all of us, it's time to give the spooks a run for their money.

You can rant up and down how Obama would *never* ever spy on Americans, but that's simply not true. I'm not going to post a link. You just have to read any newspaper. If you still want it spelled out for you, google "Patriot Act" and "Extension."

Anyway:

by Jason Thomas

Consider this scenario.

Sam wants to send Jane a secret email love letter that he doesn't want Joe, Jane's jealous downstairs neighbor who piggybacks her wifi, to see. Jane uses PGP, which means she has a PUBLIC key (which is basically a bunch of letters and numbers) which she's published on her web site for anyone who wants to send her encrypted email messages to use. Jane's also got a PRIVATE key which no one else - including Joe the Jealous Wifi Piggybacker - has.

So Sam looks up Jane's public key. He composes his ardent profession of love, encrypts it with that public key, and sends Jane his message. In sending, copies of that message are made on Sam's email server and Jane's email server - but that message looks like a bunch of garbled nonsense. Joe the Jealous Wifi Piggybacker shakes his fist in frustration when he sniffs Jane's email for any hint of a chance between them. He can't read Sam's missive.

However, when Jane receives the message in Thunderbird, her private key decrypts it. When it does, she can read all about Sam's true feelings in (pretty good) privacy.

You too can get PGP set up in a few simple steps.
Configure PGP in Thunderbird

The easiest tool to use is Mozilla's email program, Thunderbird with the Enigmail extension. (Be sure to click "Save Link As..." and download the extension to your computer; otherwise Firefox will try to install it.) You'll also need to download a the free GNUPGP software for Windows.

Here's how to put it all together.

Run the GPGP installer. It should put GNUPGP under your Program Files directory.
Once you've downloaded Enigmail, in Thunderbird open Tools -> Options -> Extensions -> Install New Extension, and then choose the Enigmail extension file.
When you've restarted Thunderbird with Enigmail installed, you will see an OpenPGP menu item. Open it and go to Preferences. There you'll find a dialog to point to your GnuPGP binary. Click Browse. On my machine, GPG was installed under Program Files\GNU\GnuPG\gpg.exe.
Now you'll need to generate your public/private key pair. From the OpenPGP menu item, choose Key Management. From the Generate menu, choose New Key Pair. Choose the email address you want to create a key for, and set a passphrase. Hit the "Generate Key" button, and relax - it can take a few minutes.

When it's done, you have the chance to generate a "revocation certificate." This certificate can invalidate your public key just in case your private key is ever compromised. Go ahead and get your revocation certificate and save it.


<snip>

For the rest, go here ----> http://lifehacker.com/180878/how-to-encrypt-your-email

Honestly - EVERYONE should be doing this. Keep in mind, there are more than just the government who want to see your email. I'm sure some con men in the Ivory Coast would love to get a hold of all your email.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Any Linux apps?