[Leaplist] encryption

[John Simpson]

On 2007-10-26, at 2210, Hank Lambert wrote:
>
> I think this is a great idea. I have been learning about encryption  
> for the
> last few months, but the problem is the same as with a lot of computer
> technology; you can learn the ideas, and memorize the rules, but how  
> does it
> apply in real life. For example, I know what symmetric and asymmetric
> encryption is, and I also know what hashes like SHA-1 are, but how  
> do you
> apply them. How do I really use asymmetric encryption to encrypt an  
> e-mail
> message, or how do I sign an e-mail message? What are the steps to  
> apply
> these technologies and use them on a day to day basis? A discussion  
> one
> night on this with a key signing party would be terrific.

that *is* a good idea. i don't consider myself an expert on this  
stuff, but "advanced user" maybe... i don't know that i feel confident  
enough to give such a presentation, but i'll definitely be the guy in  
the audience asking the tough questions to make the presentation  
better...

as for the day-to-day mechanics of it, the "gpg" program comes with  
most linux distros, and is also available for mac osx and probably  
windoze as well.

under linux, "kmail" (the KDE mail program) knows how to call gpg in  
order to do the common operations (encrypt and/or sign a message  
before sending it, decrypt a message you receive, verify a signature,  
etc.) "mutt" also knows how to do call gpg in order to do these  
things. i'm sure there are other email programs which can do them as  
well.

for OSX, apple's Mail.app doesn't know how to handle gpg directly, but  
there is a third-party plug-in which gives it that ability. he doesn't  
yet have a version for 10.5 (which just came out on friday) but his  
web site (below) says he should have one out in "10 days"... which is  
the only reason the message you're reading right now isn't signed,  
because i'm typing it on my desktop machine which is running the new  
OS already. i used earlier versions of the same plug-in with 10.3 and  
10.4, and had no problems at all- it worked very smoothly, just a  
checkbox to say "yes i want to sign this message" or "yes i want to  
encrypt this message", and if you encrypt, it has a way to choose  
which keys you're encrypting to (i.e. who can de-crypt it.)

http://www.sente.ch/software/GPGMail/English.lproj/GPGMail.html

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| John M. Simpson    ---   KG4ZOW   ---    Programmer At Large |
| http://www.jms1.net/                         <jms1 at jms1.net> |
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