Even with the proliferation of messaging, voice and video
conferencing, sending an email remains one of the most efficient forms of
official communication. Having been around for almost 45 years, emailing
systems are tried and tested, and now ever more popular with the convenience of
web mail. However emails aren't inherently secure - another person intercepting
and opening emails isn't that difficult. To prevent unauthorized view, a
popular encryption standard called PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is used to
exchange emails that are privy only to a specific sender and receiver.PGP operates on what is
called a key pair. These are a set of two digital keys: a private and public
key. The principle is simple - when any two parties need to exchange emails
securely, they exchange each other's ‘public' keys. So when A wants to email B,
A encrypts her message with B's public key before sending it. When B receives
this encrypted message, he decrypts it using the second half of his key pair -
his private key. The same works in reverse when B needs to email A; he encrypts
the message with A's public key, then A decrypts the message using her own
private key. Here's how to setup and use PGP with your webmail account:
Generate your initial key pair: Start by installing a plugin called Mailvelope.
Available for both Chrome and Firefox, it embeds PGP functionality right into
your browser. When installed, a icon appears to the right of the address bar -
click Options, then ‘Generate key'. Fill in the relevant details and about a
minute later your key pair will be created. If you view this, all you will see
is two blocks of garbled text.
Distribute your PUBLIC
key: You can now go ahead and freely distribute your public key, which other
PGP users will use to encrypt mails they send to you. Note, never EVER reveal
your private key. Also keep it safely - if you lose your private key it will be
impossible to recover messages encrypted with the complementing public key.
Send
sensitive emails to trusted contacts : With the Mailvelope plugin installed,
when you hit the compose button in your Gmail or Yahoo Mail a new button will
appear above the message window. Clicking this will open a special box in which
you will now write your message. Select the message recipient (note that you
need to have previously imported their public key into Mailvelope for their
contact to get picked up,) write your message in the text box, then click
‘Encrypt'. You'll now be taken back to the original email window, with what
appears to be garbled text showing up in the body. This is the encrypted
message they will receive and decrypt with your public key.
Receive
sensitive emails from trusted contacts: When a trusted contact sends you an
encrypted email, a special closed envelope icon will appear on it, indicating
it is encrypted. To view its contents, simply click on it and enter the
passcode you typed while creating the original key pair.
Source: DNA-26th November,2016
http://epaper2.dnaindia.com/index.php?pagedate=2016-11-26&edcode=820009&subcode=820009&mod=1&pgnum=2
