Does anyone here use encrypted email?

I recently set up GPG (GnuPrivacyGuard) on my computer because of my concern over the increased snooping activity of the US government (not to mention Illuminati hackers! ).

I was wondering who else here used GPG or other types of mail/file encryption that uses the public/private key system. Since I don't know very many other people that use such systems, I thought interested parties here could exchange public keys�if for no other reason than to increase the amount of encrypted email that the government can't easily snoop.

For more information, please see GnuPrivacyGuard. For those of you using a Mac (like me), check out Mac GPG for binaries and setup information.

Encrypted e-mail is usually for those who send e-mail over possibly unsecure networks, in fear of "sniffers" that collect packets going over the network...if you are talking about something specifically private, at least your ISP couldn't view it, but if the government really wanted to snoop on your e-mail they could break any kind of encryption you have on it, unfortunately... I have no need to use it yet, as I don't really have anything that confidential that I communicate about over e-mail..lots of people use PGP, or better yet, protected e-mail servers and accounts such as www.ziplip.com

Originally posted by 23rd_Degree
I recently set up GPG (GnuPrivacyGuard) on my computer because of my concern over the increased snooping activity of the US government (not to mention Illuminati hackers!

).

no offense but isn't that a little paranoid? unless ur a some business guy sending important, private data then i could understand y u would want that program. also, if ur sending some incriminating stuff (like maybe pr0n or worse.....kiddy pr0n) then...yea u'd probably need it.

Originally posted by silQ
no offense but isn't that a little paranoid? unless ur a some business guy sending important, private data then i could understand y u would want that program. also, if ur sending some incriminating stuff (like maybe pr0n or worse.....kiddy pr0n) then...yea u'd probably need it.

No offense taken. Yeah, it's probably a little bit paranoid, but I'd rather be way too safe than wishing I was. I work in publishing, so I do send a lot of valuable intellectual property via email. Magazines and newspapers love to scoop each other, so a little extra security (even though it is overkill in this case) alleviates all worries. I've never heard of a case where one media entity hacked or packet-sniffed another in order to get an advantage, but I'd rather not take the chance of being the first sucker. Email, in general, is really not that secure be default. It's not horrible, but it could be better. Really, though, GPG is used just as much to verify with certainty the identity of the sender as it is to protect data in transit.

GPG also encrypts regular files on your machine for security, so it's not just a program for email. For example, if you have a work laptop with tons of company data on it, encrypting it will protect sensitive information in case the laptop is stolen. Check out the links I posted in the first message to find out why you might want to use it. Also check out this link for a basic explanation of why digital signatures and encryption are important. The site is for an activist group, the kind of group the government might want to "eavesdrop" on.

Oh, and no, I don't send kiddie porn.

Here's another good article on the security (or lack therof) of email:
seclists.org...

It explains many possible security leaks between the sending client and the receiving client. Very interesting read.

I occasionally use encrypted e-mail. I think it is a good idea. Encryption is not generally used because the government and the large companies that want to watch us do not promote it. Companies like Microsoft and AOL could have made encryption much more popular but they chose not to. Encryption is extremely easy for computers. It's just hard to use encryption when nobody else has it installed.

If i were you i would also go throughe a privet email server too

When you encrypt email, you're taking time away from the NSA to decode real threats to break your email. That said, it's probably not that hard for them to break anyway, as they have deals with most commerical encryption people to provide an easy backdoor for them to decode.

Public/Private key encryption based on the RSA principle cannot be broken by all the computing power on the planet running for a million years. This is because of the sheer size of the numbers used to create the encyption. RSA works by sending the padlock rather than the key.

FBI agents have been unable to unlock suspected terrorists computers because they have encypted all their files using PGP. It does work.

Originally posted by mrsteve
Public/Private key encryption based on the RSA principle cannot be broken by all the computing power on the planet running for a million years. This is because of the sheer size of the numbers used to create the encyption. RSA works by sending the padlock rather than the key.

FBI agents have been unable to unlock suspected terrorists computers because they have encypted all their files using PGP. It does work.

Here's an article to your point.

URL: www.pcworld.com...

The current version of PGP will be cracked someday but exactly when that someday will happen is unknown. As we develop more powerful computers along with implementing methods to parallelize them the cracking becomes less difficult. Of course, as this happens it also increases our ability to implement higher levels of encryption.

PGP Freeware is available at www.pgp.com... but has some limitations which are quite limiting in my opinion:

PGP Freeware product capabilities/limitations:

1. Does not include PGP Disk
   
2. Does not include automatic encryption of email file attachments
   
3. Does not provide plug-in integration with Outlook, Outlook Express, or other email applications on any platform
   
4. Does not operate with PGP Admin or other PGP deployment tools
   

Yes it is limiting in order to make you need to purchase the full product. But if u want really need to send an encypted email with PGP u can just write in a text editor then PGP encrypt the file and attach it to an email.

Originally posted by Dmsoldier
If i were you i would also go throughe a privet email server too

I believe anonymizer.com provides anonymous e-mail, which is one level of privacy here, although not necessarily what we're talking about.

The private e-mail server will still transmit the mail message to the recipient's server unencrypted. It's the client that does the encryption.

Originally posted by titian
PGP Freeware is available at www.pgp.com... but has some limitations which are quite limiting in my opinion:

I would use GPG rather than PGP if I were you. GPG is totally free and without any usage limitations. It is a non-commercial product and its creators have no interest in dealing with the government or any corporations.

Check it out:
www.gnupg.org...

If any of you guys install it, let me know and we can trade public keys. The more people that have it, the more useful it becomes.

Originally posted by mrsteve
Yes it is limiting in order to make you need to purchase the full product. But if u want really need to send an encypted email with PGP u can just write in a text editor then PGP encrypt the file and attach it to an email.

Yep, that works too. Also, since the email itself isn't encrypted, it probably raises less red flags to snooping feds.

Originally posted by titian
Here's an article to your point.

URL: www.pcworld.com...

Thanks for the article. That was very interesting and informative. Everyone reading this thread should check it out.

I actually use OpenPGP religiously. I mean, if everyone didn't believe in privacy, they would send all of their mail on post cards!

If you want to e-mail me using OpenPGP you can download my public key here:

www.pirateshare.net...

thats agent 014 im planning on using encriypted email now, just because i think its a good thing to do, just means what you want to tell some they hear, no one else.

To answer the question, no I do not use encrypted e-mail.

I rarely even use e-mail in the first place, so it's never really been
something I've thought about, that and I could care less if the government
sees my e-mail or not, all they'd get is various writing stuff for school and
a few avatars and desktop backgrounds.

Encrypted e-mail is probably one of the easiest things to decrypt. Considering once the third party has it, they have an infinite amount of time to decrypt the message, and you will never know they are trying neither.

I wouldnt trust it.

The only communications that are worth encrypting are immediate communications, with a rolling encryption. Chat room type transmissions.

That, or you can program a chat system to send part of a packet through one branch of servers, and the other parts through others... all re-joining at the destination... now THAT screws up anyone trying to decrypt your message.
They would have to monitor each server at the same time, looking for anything addressed to that certain recipient, then re-assemble the packets, then decrypt them.

Hell, you could even encrypt the recipients address, and only a certain server is waiting for that encryption, so it can re-route packets again. The rest of the severs would be confused...

add IP tunneling onto that... man you could really make the system complex. It would take weeks for the government to try to figure that one out.

[edit on 23-4-2007 by johnsky]