Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)

One of the most popular encryption programs on the Internet for a number of years now has been PGP, originally developed by Phillip Zimmerman. PGP uses public-key cryptography and has been ported to many computer platforms, including Unix, Linux, and, of course, all versions of Windows from Windows NT and Windows 95 onward.

PGP Corporation (www.pgp.com) currently markets the commercial version of PGP. Although it charges for the commercial product, it offers a freeware version on its site. In addition, you can download an older freeware version or a command-line version from http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html. This freeware version has some, but not all, of the capabilities of the full-fledged product. The freeware product is for noncommercial use only, so it's a good buy (free) for most ordinary Internet users. Also note that the only versions available for freeware download are for the Windows, Unix, and Macintosh platforms. If you want to use PGP in your business environment, you'll need to purchase the commercial version and a license from PGP Corporation.

PGP has been established as an Internet proposed standard through the Request for Comments (RFC) process. RFC 2440, "OpenPGP Message Format," was written in 1998 and details the specification.

An international site devoted to PGP also can be used to download PGP. Visit the PGPi Project International PGP home page at www.pgpi.org/ to learn more about PGP International. The downloads available from this site include support for the following platforms:

• Amiga

• Atari

• BeOS

• EPOC (Psion, and so on)

• MacOS

• MS-DOS

• Newton

• OS/2

• PalmOS

• Unix

• Windows 3.x

• Windows 2000

• Windows Me

• Windows 95/98/NT

• Windows XP

As you can see, various operating systems are supported by the International PGP site, which is working to establish PGP as a standard for encryption on the Internet. In addition to the standard PGP package, which provides for a number of applications, such as document encryption and email, a number of other products also are available, such as PGPdisk (for encrypting disks) and PGPphone (for making secure phone calls on the Internet).

The PGPi Project also is making PGP available in various languages, and also is currently translating the documentation. PGPi is a nonprofit organization dedicated to further developing and distributing PGP technology throughout the world. In addition, for some platforms, the source code is available so that you can examine it before compiling it on your system.