
1
CRYPTOGRAPHY
KINDERGARTEN
You don’t need to understand
everything about modern
cryptography to use OpenPGP
successfully. You do need to know
some of the basics, however, and you must
understand the protections that OpenPGP
does and does not provide. This chapter
provides a very brief and stripped-down
introduction to the ideas behind modern
cryptography.
What OpenPGP Can Do
Everything in the rest of this chapter builds to a description
of the way OpenPGP works its magic. By combining hashes,
public-key encryption, and digital signatures, OpenPGP allows
you to achieve excellent levels of confidentiality, integrity,
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