Introduction
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is a digital data encryption application that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP was developed by Phil Zimmermann, a special director of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) from 1997-2000.
When PGP can be used?
PGP can be used to send messages confidentially. Messages encrypted using a public PGP key can only be decrypted using a related private PGP key which should be kept secret!
Let’s check the real example of PGP usage:
Scenario: User wants to send Vendor a private message which could only be read by him/her. User asks Vendor for their public PGP key, then copies and pastes it to a dedicated PGP software. The user writes the desired message and clicks encrypt. PGP software outputs the encrypted message. The user sends an encrypted message to the Vendor via email, forum, etc. The vendor decrypts the message using his private PGP key in a similar manner as the User encrypted it.