PGP Encryption

PGP is an encryption methodology for sending encrypted emails. It requires you to have a Private Key and a Public Key. When you swap Public Keys with other PGP users, you will be able to send encrypted emails to those users and decrypt the emails they send you. Beside each of the contact email addresses on this page, you'll notice a small key icon. If you're email client is setup with PGP encryption, you can obtain our Public Keys by clicking those icons. For more information on PGP and to get started using it, visit the following links:

MIT PGP Distribution Center

PGP Corporation

Philip R. Zimmermann, PGP Author

Mac OSX PGP/GPG Setup

The following instructions are intended as an overview of how to setup PGP encryption for Email on a Mac OSX system. Please refer to the instructions that come with the programs referenced on this page.

  1. Install Mac GNU-PG. Mac GNU Privacy Guard (Mac GPG for short) is the Mac OS X port of GnuPG, licensed under the GNU GPL. The aims of the project are to make GnuPG easy to install, develop a framework to make it easy for other developers to incorporate GnuPG functionality into their applications, write services to allow for the use of GnuPG functions in most Cocoa applications, and write a Mac GPG Keys type application so that you no longer have to go to the commandline to manage your keys. For those who don't know, GnuPG is a free OpenPGP client (PGP = Pretty Good Privacy). It can encrypt text (usually e-mail or other messages sent between people) and sign text to prove who wrote it. For more information, visit the Mac GNU Privacy Guard homepage.

  2. Create your Public and Private Keys. This is where things start to get difficult. The following handbook explains everything you'll ever need to know about PGP and GPG (both are related encryption technologies). GNU Privacy Handbook. Specifically though, the very first section of this online handbook explains how to generate your keypairs. Read it carefully and follow the directions. If that handbook seems a bit difficult to read and understand, here's another step-by-step guide for creating your keys: Using GPG on Mac OS X. Take special note of the final steps which cover exporting your Public Key. You'll want to know how to do this so you can give your Public Key to others, as well as import their Public Keys. Here's a nice description of what and how Public-Key Cryptography works.

  3. Install GPG Keychain Access. This helpful program puts a nice clean interface on managing your keys.

  4. Install GPGMail. GPGMail, by Sente, is a plug-in for Apple's Mail, providing a front-end to GPG for some operations. It allows you to read/write encrypted messages, as well as electronically signed messages. Everything you need... the download, installation instructions, and setup can all be found on the page linked above.

  5. Key Server. The final step in this process is to post your Public Key on a Key Server so others will have easy access to your Public Key. To do this, you will have had to export your Public Key, as mentioned above. Once you have your Public Key file, there are several key servers you can post it to. Here are a couple:

    http://www.stinkfoot.org/pgp/

    http://pgp.mit.edu/

    http://keyserver.veridis.com/