Go here first:
http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html
This is the MIT PGP site. You can download the freeware version here and there are links to information resources of both value and interest.
Then go to:
www.pgp.com
for the commercial site, where you can purchase PGP Personal Desktop for $59. Of course there are ways of getting this fine program free of charge, but this is one that is well worth the bucks, and the support alone is worth the $59 cost of the key. Note that I own no stock in PGP corporation!
Here is another site worth visiting:
http://www.pl.pgpi.org/products/pgp/versions/freeware/
Here are free downloads of pgp versions ported to various platforms such as amiga, atari, BeOS, EPOC, Mac, dos, Newton, OS/2, Palm, Unix, W2K, W3.X, W95/98/NT, ME, and XP. Note that freeware PGP8 for WXP does not include the essential (IMHO) PGPDisk tool. PGPDisk was a stand-alone program until version 6.02, when it was briefly integrated into the freeware version. In version 6.5 or above, PGPDisk is only available in the paid-for versions.
ftp://ftp.pgpi.org/pub/pgp/6.5/docs/...roToCrypto.pdf
Great reading! Maybe more depth than the average user needs but at least DL it and browse through it. A lot of it will be gobbledygook on the first reading but revisit this very good document a few months hence, after getting acquainted with PGP, and you will probably absorb some more of it.
http://www.pgpi.org/cgi/download.cgi...eeware602i.exe
This is the last freeware version to include PGPDisk. Or:
http://www.pgpi.org/products/pgpdisk/
to download the source code for PGP version 6.5.1 to compile PGPDisk yourself. Really though, you are better off with the most recent version. Still, for you cheap b@stards this is an option, without having to rip off the copyright holders with a pirated copy. Sheesh... some of you guys will cheerfully fork over a grand or more for a cycle of juice and won't pay a measly $59 for a program that might keep you or those you correspond with out of jail?
Okay I guess by now you have figured out that I am a big fan of PGP. Read the documentation and you will see why. I won't go into it here, except to say that many of you engage in legally questionable transactions via email, keep incriminating or damaging email addresses on your puter, and save price lists for gear, etc, too. When the cops take YOUR puter, who else takes a fall? Who else do YOU send to prison, or who gets turned into a snitch and brings down a dozen good men whose only sin is using pharmaceutical help to achieve physical greatness? What sources will dry up because of careless storage of sensitive data on your laptop? Think about it.
PGP is good, strong encryption. In fact it may be (probably is) the strongest encryption SYSTEM on the planet. Again, I won't go into details, though they are fascinating... but I will point out one of the most potentially powerful tools in the PGP system... PGPDisk. This tool creates virtual encrypted drives on your hard drive that can be mounted by PGP and decrypted or encrypted on the fly. When writing to or reading from the mounted PGPDisk virtual drive, it is as if you were reading or writing to a hard drive. The difference is that behind the scenes, PGP is securing your data on this virtual drive. When you unmount it, it appears as a large file filled with boggledybook. If you read the documentation you will get a feel for the virtual impossibility of "cracking" this file and retrieving the data. Of course a program could be installed to this virtual drive when it is mounted by PGP, and this is where your choice of email clients gets interesting. Most very simple email clients, as opposed to leviathan apps like Eudora or Outlook Express, do not use registry entries or runtime files stored in the SYSTEM directory. Such programs typically occupy a single program directory, including any dependent files. Most DOS email programs and many UNIX or LINUX email programs fit this description. Agent, a very popular newsreader program from Forte Inc, also functions as a very good email client, and runs well on a PGPDisk virtual encrypted drive. So if you install a suitable email program on the PGPDisk, even if you allow it to save old messages or email addresses, the data is secure.
You can get Forte Agent from:
www.forteinc.com
While you're at it, if you know diddly about UseNet, you might check out the documentation. Since you are buying a newsreader and using it for an email client, you may as well learn about how to use it as a newsreader, or at least find out what a newsreader IS, especially if you are in the under-40 crowd and think that the WWW "IS" the internet, and know nothing about the real internet from before mouses and http.
So how does this all tie together? Simple. Install PGP. Create your keys, and publish your public key. Create a PGP virtual drive with PGPDisk. Install an appropriately bare-bones email client onto this virtual drive, and use it for any sensitive email traffic. Save any sensitive files to this virtual drive, too. Unmount the virtual drive manually, or allow it to be automatically unmounted from inactivity. Your data is secure.
So what about Hushmail? Guess what encryption scheme it uses... that's right... PGP! Very secure email indeed, but you probably save interesting emails as text files... on an unencrypted drive, right? Do you trust W2000 or WXP's encryption scheme? Should you? Answer that yourself cause I am not "Master of the Obvious". Even if you use Hushmail you need strong protection for files on your puter. PGPDisk makes strong encryption of computer files convenient enough that most people will actually USE it.
I hope this helps somebody somewhere out there. I leave you with this quote from Mr Zimmerman himself:
"When privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy."
