Mastering Linux Security and Hardening

Hands-on lab – combining gpg and tar for encrypted backups

For this lab, you'll combine tar and gpg to create an encrypted backup on a simulated backup device. You can perform this lab on either one of your virtual machines:

1. Start off by creating your GPG keys. You will do that with the following command:

        gpg --gen-key

2. Create some dummy files in your home directory, so that you'll have something to back up:

        touch {file1.txt,file2.txt,file3.txt,file4.txt}

3. Create a backup directory at the root level of the filesystem. (In real life, you would have the backup directory on a separate device, but for now, this works.) Change ownership of the directory to your own account, and set the permissions so that only you can access it:

 sudo mkdir ...