Encrypting

For users of Outlook, Outlook Express, and Eudora this is very simple. First compose your e-mail and after it is done click on PGP on your e-mail program's toolbar and choose Encrypt Now. This will bring up the PGPkeys program and it will list the public keys you have on your system. Select the public key of the person you are sending the e-mail to and PGP will encrypt your message. You will now see your message as a bunch of unintelligible text and numbers; this is what an encrypted PGP message looks like:

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: PGPfreeware 6.5.2 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com>

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=Mpks
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----

Decrypting

How about decrypting and reading e-mail sent via PGP? When you open the e-mail you will see some unintelligible text, just like the example in the previous paragraph. If you are using Outlook, Outlook Express, or Eudora, decrypting is very easy. Click on PGP on your tool bar, then choose Decrypt/Verify. This will bring up a box that shows you which Public key this message was encrypted by, and will ask you to enter your password to your private key to decrypt the e-mail. Enter your password and then click OK and that unintelligible junk you just received is now a readable e-mail!

This is what that encrypted message above says: >This is a test of the PGP program.>

Use with unsupported e-mail programs

What if you don't use one of the major e-mail programs that have plug-in support for PGP? There is an easy workaround. You must make sure that you have PGPtray loaded to do this; go to Start/Run/PGP/PGPtray. This will load the program and display a small Lock icon in your System tray. In order to use PGP to encrypt and decrypt e-mail, you must use both PGPtray and the clipboard. Actually it is very simple to do once you understand how it works. To encrypt a message that you want to send to someone, you must do the following: Compose the message you want and when you are finished, copy the text to the clipboard. Then click on the PGPtray icon and select Clipboard and choose Encrypt, which will bring up your list of Public keys that you can use to encrypt the message. Select one and the program will encrypt the text. To send this message, simply copy the now encrypted message and paste it into your e-mail message text window and send it to the recipient in the normal manner.

To decrypt an encrypted e-mail you do the opposite. Copy the encrypted text to the clipboard, and then click on the PGPtray icon. Choose Clipboard and select Decrypt & Verify. PGP will ask you for the password needed to use your Private key to decrypt the e-mail then it will decrypt the e-mail and allow you to read it. You may save the unencrypted contents to a file as needed.