Concept in Definition ABC

Nowadays there are hardly any secrets, and we can get an idea of ​​it thanks to the revelations of Edward Snowden that have left half the world upside down. The government agencies that spy on us, the cybercriminals who seek to scam us and profit from the information they steal from us, and the many companies that provide us online services and that either do not adequately protect our information, or directly take advantage of it, are an affront to our Privacy.

To try to maintain a little of this lost privacy, in many of our communications (such as the email) we can use encryption technologies and, among these, the best known and most widely used, such as PGP.

PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy (Privacy Good Enough, in a free translation), a cryptographic system that allows us to encode information,

used essentially to distribute it safely and away from prying eyes via Internet.

It was created by Philip Zimmermann in 1991, based on a mathematical cryptographic model, and seeking to offer an affordable option to everyone. world to keep your privacy safe and to be able to communicate without anyone (especially governments) being able to snoop on what you were saying.

Its name has not been given to it in vain, since it is an encryption system robust enough to withstand attempts to decoding with very sophisticated techniques, yet easy enough to be used by anyone with minimal knowledge and training.

Throughout its long life it has had several implementations and has become popular, to the point that

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the entity in charge of various technical aspects of the operation of the network of networks, adopted PGP as a standard, in its open form OpenPGP.

This is nothing more than an implementation that lacks licenses to execute its mission of encrypting data, so it can be distributed and implemented in software without suffering any restrictions.

In addition to encrypting information, PGP can also be used to "sign" documents.

with an electronic signature. In this way, you can make sure that the content you receive comes from who it should come from.

To carry out the encryption process you need what is called a "private key",

that is not more than a key that is used to generate the algorithm encryption, so that each unique key gives a unique result on the same text. This key will only be held by the transmitter, and you must not give it to anyone under any circumstances.

The recipient must have the so-called "public key", which only serves to decode what is sent encoded with the private key

This public key must be supplied by the person who encrypts the information, and only to the people to whom he sends the encrypted texts.

Most of the programs that implement the PGP standard offer facilities when it comes to using both keys, making it easy for end users to encode and decode information.

Usually, these programs use a structure of front-end / back-end, separating the motor from coding of the interface Username, so that both can be updated independently.

A final note, both regarding the use of PGP, as well as other cryptographic protection systems for our information: in some countries the use of encryption technologies is classified as illegal, while in others - and although it is legal, although with restrictions in some cases-,

its mere use can lead you to be considered as a suspect of terrorist activities by the police authorities

What is the reason for this? Easy: organizations Terrorists, mainly Islamic State, have been using encryption systems to communicate between groups, a technology that is not commonly used by users end.

Therefore, its use is considered unusual, and it can easily lead law enforcement officials to wonder what is behind its use in messages.

Photos: Fotolia - profit_ / kras99

Topics in PGP