In order to understand how PGP works, it’s useful to look at a diagram: PGP shares some features with other encryption systems you may have heard of, like Kerberos encryption (which is used to authenticate network users) and SSL encryption (which is used to secure websites).Īt a basic level, PGP encryption uses a combination of two forms of encryption: symmetric key encryption, and public-key encryption. If you want to improve the security of your email messages, PGP offers a relatively easy and cost-effective way to do this. The second is that since PGP uses both symmetric encryption and public-key encryption, it allows users who have never met to send encrypted messages to each other without exchanging private encryption keys.

The first is that the system was originally available as freeware, and so spread rapidly among users who wanted an extra level of security for their email messages. The popularity of PGP is based on two factors. Since its invention back in 1991, PGP has become the de facto standard for email security.

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is an encryption system used for both sending encrypted emails and encrypting sensitive files.

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