Linux HOWTO: Secure Your Data with PGP, Part 1

Linux Journal introduces: In today's time of rampant information crimes, including identity theft, security is more important to the average computer user than ever. This tutorial shows how you can use GnuPG to secure and verify data on your Linux box.

This video was created using only free and open source software tools: TightVNC, pyvnc2swf, ardour2, audacity, jackd, LAME, kolourpaint, cinelerra-cv, mjpegtools, and ffmpeg.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• bsd
• cypher
• encryption
• gnu
• gnupg
• gpg
• journal
• key
• linux
• open
• pgp
• private
• public
• rsa
• security
• source
• ssl
• symmetrical

[AcentricOm]

For @meelislubi and for the benefit of future viewers:

You're right about the distribution, but you're not completely correct about enc/dec.

Another person sends you a message using your public key to encrypt data so that only your private key can decrypt it. This ensures that only YOU can decrypt the data that is meant for you.

Whereas if you wanted to send a message, it's digitally signed with your private key instead of encrypted, so that your public key can certify that it came from you.

[tessachristopher1]

you just open a terminal ....where did you get that terminal..

[b1naryd1g1t5]

@karnvapenkrig

No it's not wrong. Almost every cipher used by PGP/GPG uses at least a 128 bit key. That's 2^128 possible keys. If you had a computer sized one inch in diameter that could try 1 billion keys a second and put one of these computers on every square inch of the Earth's land surface, it would still take over 50,000 years to find the key.

Of course, there is nowhere even close to this kind of computing power on earth. So, yes, it would take longer than the age of the universe.

[karnvapenkrig]

To say that the combined computing powers of ALL the machines in the world would not be able to crack PGP under the lifetime of the UNIVERSE is not just an overstatement, it's just plain wrong.

[meelislubi]

Common you can already tell it by description:

Private key - it is private you do not distribute private things or do you.

Public key - as the word implies: it public, known to everyone.

[kxmadhu]

Meelislubi - you have got it confused, not the video.

[adriaticsea123]

agree, it is not distributed, and actually scheme is ok

[meelislubi]

From 2:43 on you get public and private key confused. Private key is not distributed . Public key is.

Also Private key is used for encrypting and Public key for decrypting

[velvethandofdarkness]

GPG rocks

[filippo333]

Good video.