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PGP stands for “Pretty Good Privacy” and is a security program that allows users to communicate securely by encrypting and decrypting messages, authenticating messages through digital signatures, and encrypting files. Philip Zimmermann is the original designer of PGP, and according to him, due to the increasing public demand for privacy, this program is freely available to all users.
After the appearance of this program in 1991, several versions of this software were made. In 1997, Philip Zimmerman proposed the creation of an open source PGP standard to the Internet Engineering Task Force. After some time, this proposal was accepted and led to the creation of the OpenPGP protocol, whose task is to define standard formats for cryptographic keys and messages.
PGP shares some features with other systems such as Kerberos, which is used to authenticate network users, and SSL, which is used to secure websites. It is a type of hybrid cryptography that uses Symmetric and Asymmetric Encryption to achieve a high level of security.
In a basic process, an intelligible plaintext is converted into an unreadable ciphertext. Before the process is done, most PGP systems perform a compression operation on the data. By compressing texts before transferring them, PGP reduces unnecessary disk space, also reduces transmission and improves security.
After the file compression process, the main PGP process starts.
In this step, the original compressed file is encrypted with a one-time key. This key is randomly generated through Symmetric Encryption and each session of communication in PGP has a unique key. PGP was originally used to encrypt emails, but now the technology can be used to protect communications, text messages, and files. PGP can be used to improve privacy or secure digital licenses.
There are generally 3 main uses for PGP:
The main advantage of using PGP is that it is essentially impenetrable. For this reason, it is still used by journalists and activists in this field. This technology, with the help of symmetric and asymmetric encryption, allows users to share encrypted information and keys over the Internet. Also, as a hybrid system, it uses the security of Symmetric Encryption and the speed of Asymmetric Encryption. In addition to security and speed, digital signatures also ensure the authenticity of the information and the authenticity of the sender.
The biggest drawback of PGP encryption is that it is not user-friendly. Especially for users who have low technical knowledge. Also, long public keys are not pleasant for users. It’s true that PGP encrypts your messages; But it does not make your identity anonymous. Unlike anonymous browsers that use proxy servers or hide their location with the help of a VPN, emails sent from sender to recipient can be traced. For this reason, it is better not to transmit very important and sensitive information in this way.
