Peter van der Linden’s Guide to Linux: A Lesson in Encryption, Part 1

With most people, when they think encryption, they think of things like PGP encryption. But how many of us truly understand it? Not as many as we might like to think apparently. Good thing there are guides like this to help us along the way.

One of the qualities that distinguishes Linux from lesser operating systems is its superior support for your privacy and security. That means more than avoiding buggy virus-propagating applications, such as Microsoft’s Outlook and Internet Explorer. Savvy people and organizations quite rightly want to protect their data files and e-mail from snooping eyes. One way to do so is by keeping important files in coded form, a practice known as encryption.

Don’t think encryption is only for secret agents or computer gurus with ponytails down to the waist and witty t-shirts from thinkgeek.com. Putting an ordinary file on a PC is like leaving a letter face up on a desk. It’s in plain view for anyone who passes by. Encryption is practical for ordinary people who want to keep their data private when they put it on a PC. It effectively puts that letter into a strong sealed envelope. You can do it, and it’s an important ability to have.

Keeping your data and email truly private is an increasingly significant skill in these times. Privacy through encryption apparently is important enough that governments as diverse as those of France, Britain and Iran want to deny it to their citizens. In the US, the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the government from denying freedom of speech to its citizens. Or at least, the Constitution makes it more probable that such denial eventually will be overturned in the courts. Freedom of speech has been interpreted by the courts to include freedom of dance, of song, of cinema, and it includes the freedom to write down whatever random numbers you like. [Read the rest]