How To
60 MA XIMUMPC JUNE 2005
The first time you reboot your computer after
installing PGP , the License Authorization window
will appear. Click the Later button to make it go
away, and then look for the PGP padlock icon in the
notification area of your taskbar (at the bottom-right
of your screen). Right-click the padlock and choose
PGPkeys to open the PGPkeys window. From the
Keys menu, open the Key Generation Wizard by
clicking New Key. Click Next, enter your name and
e-mail address, and click Next again. This will bring
you to the most critical part of the key-generation
process—choosing a pass-phrase. Your pass-phrase
should be long and complex, ideally encompassing
a combination of spaces, symbols, numbers, and
letters. When you’re done, click Next, Next again, and
then Finish.
Note that PGP offers a multitude of different
encryption methods and strengths to choose from.
These settings can be accessed by clicking the Expert
button on the first screen of the Key Generation
Wizard, but because the default encryption method
(256-bit AES) is well-suited to our purposes, we
won’t mess with it.STEP 2: CREATE YOUR PGP KEYS
Your pass-phrase is the weakest link in the security of PGP , so it’s
imperative to pick one that’s difficult to figure out, but that you’ll
still be able to remember. To assist in this process, PGP rates the
quality of your pass-phrase as you type it in.In order to send and receive secure e-mails among other
PGP users, you must first exchange keys with them. To do
this, open the PGPkeys window by right-clicking the PGP
padlock icon in the notification area and clicking PGPkeys.
Select your name from the list of keys displayed, click
Edit, and then choose Copy to send your public key to the
clipboard. Now fire up your favorite e-mail client, create a
blank message, and paste your public key into the message
window. Sending this e-mail to fellow PGP users will allowthem to add your public key to their key ring.
You’ll also need to add your contacts’ keys to your own
key ring. Have them send you an e-mail with their public
key using the procedure just described. When you receive
the e-mail, open it in its own message window (to do this
in Microsoft Outlook , go to your Inbox and double-click
the desired message). Next, right-click the PGP icon in the
notification area, choose Current Window, and then click
Decrypt & Verify. PGP will look at the encrypted text in
the window, and present you with several options. If the
message sender isn’t already on your key ring, you will be
prompted to add him or her. (You might need to manually
sign the sender’s key to verify its authenticity. To do this,
right-click the person’s name in the PGPkeys window,
click Sign, and then click OK.) Subsequently, right-click the
person’s name again, choose Key Properties, and move the
Trust Model slider to Trusted and click Close.
After that, it’s easy to exchange encrypted messages with
other PGP users. To send an encrypted e-mail, type the e-mail
using your favorite client, then (with the message window
selected) right-click the PGP icon in the notification area,
choose Current Window, and click Encrypt & Sign. When
prompted, select the intended recipients of the message
from your key-ring and click OK. You can now send the e-mail
as you normally would. To read an encrypted e-mail sent by
one of your contacts, open the message in its own window,
right-click the PGP icon, choose Current Window, and then
click Decrypt & Verify. PGP will verify that the sender is
indeed who he or she claims to be, and then decrypt the
e-mail so you can read it. nSTEP 3: EXCHANGE KEYS AND E-MAILS WITH OTHER PGP USERS
When sending an encrypted message using PGP , you’ll be
prompted to specify who is allowed to read the message by
dragging people from your key ring to the Recipients list. If
you forget to add the intended recipient(s) of an e-mail to
this list, they won’t be able to read it.